True Soul
by Suryallee
Summary: What if Trudy had survived and found Tsu'tey in time? How would have the aftermath turned out for everyone? The mature parts later will be posted on AFFN. I don't want trouble here.
1. Chapter 1

_**Disclaimer, I do not own Pandora or any of the characters of the film. I merely wrote this for my own amusement and that of others. **_

_**Note from the authoress, I am Native German so please be kind and sadly, all the errors in this are mine^^; and keep that in mind when you read this. I have no beta for this. Oh, and flamers will be laughed at^^, listed in the next chapter and made fun of from my sorry person. =^.^= **_

_**Honestly, before you write something nasty or stupid, try to write yourself a story and let us see how good you would be in writing it in another language. **_

_**All else, enjoy and I hope you will like my little insane idea. I know, Trudy and Tsu'tey did die in the original script. I did read it. Well, what was to find of it in the internet. Somehow I found that sad. These two were actually my most loved charas, next to poor Norm and Grace, I was bawling like a baby when she did die. Since this is fan fiction, I took the liberty to make up a get-away from their horrible deaths. It wasn't easy to find a way I assure you, grimaces, but I think I managed it. **_

_**Sincerely, Suryallee **_

_**Chapter one; the aftermath of an epic battle**_

'This is it then…'

This was the only thing going through her mind when the much bigger vessel in the sky faced her little Samson and fired several missiles at her. For a second she toyed with the thought that she could maybe catapult herself out in time and dismissed it the same second. The fireball would get her anyways… Trudy Chacon wasn't a religious person, never had been but only a second later the woman with the Latino features, begun to accept the possibilities that maybe, just maybe, Deities did truly exist.

At least here on Pandora they seem to exist.

Why?

Because in the very same second she came to this mind-altering discovery of her own, another Samson came up from under hers from between the flying rocks below her, practically blinded from a big dead Banshee on the window and took accidentally the hits that were originally meant for her poor, battle wounded baby!

Reacting purely on instinct she drove sharply to the side and behind a flying mountain.

But it wasn't fast enough, could never have been she was aware of that and still tried it. Her Samson still caught a big deal from the fireball in that the other Samson had turned into and was slightly cracked against said, flying rock. Every single emergency sign on her control went on. Cussing like a mad sailor Trudy knew then that she had only one chance; she had to go down and out of the fights above! She was no longer in any shape to help out here; she would only hinder the others as damaged and out of the most weaponry like she was it. With a heavy heart the woman did turn and hoped she would make it back to earth in one piece…maybe she could fast repair some of the worst damage to be useful at least in aiding the foot-troops of the Na'vi, pa'li riders against the AMP Suits under the Marines and mercenaries with the still functioning automatic guns.

Getting down wasn't that much of a problem, Trudy found that out real fast, but holding the Samson clear while doing it, that was it! More than one time she got nearly hooked up in a tree, shoot at from Quaritch's troopers and had to shoot back or nearly attacked from the local animals before she finally found a safe enough spot to land to then try her luck and do some badly needed repairs…before the entire tech exploded right around her ears.

In short; it was one hell of a ride down.

Her baby more plummet down into the greenery as it did landing. That alone told the pilot volumes about her chances to get up ever again. Groaning she noticed for the first time that she must have gotten injured at some point, whenever it had been when the other Samson blew up like a storm lantern or later in her mad fall / flight down back to Pandora's earth. Her head had indeed hit against the side one time, she remembered dryly, now she was bleeding from a gash that went over half of her right face side and if she was not damn right, her nose got broken too. If not it had to be damn near to be broken, to judge from the pains that now made themselves known to her. Groaning Trudy opened the first aid kit and bandaged herself up roughly.

It turned out that her left upper leg had taken a clear shot with the bullet buried to deep for her to remove it right now without to render her unfit for battle and she had a bloody gash right over her abdomen down and over her hip. It wasn't that deep, luckily, but deep enough to cause a ton of pain. Wrapping that up too and taking a injection of the painkillers Trudy cursed her lack in the medic skills department. Sure she had been trained on the basics, like every soldier but she never had developed a great skill in it either. She put first aid kit away again, more out of habit as anything else and stepped gingerly out of the damaged Samson with the Tiger design on the side. The tiger was cut into a clear half from a bullet it looked like it had been slashed in the middle; shaking her head she adjusted her Exo-pack and turned to inspect the damage.

A short inspection made clear that her Samson had seen its best days and that she would not get it up much again. She could still fly, well somewhat but not too high or in the Pandoran sky anymore, the engine had taken too much damage to get her the needed power for higher flying and more so navigating clearly. One side door had been unhinged and then got stuck in that awkward position like a natural shield. Sighting and wincing she did the repairs that were possible and was about to climb back into it again when a bow suddenly fell right out of the greenery above Trudy and connected painfully with her left shoulder.

"What the hell? Ouch! You F*** son of a bitch!"

True, her language had not improved in the last hours but no one could blame her for cussing and kicking awkwardly at the massive and big Na'vi bow that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere to just hit her; out of all people in the entire blasted wilds on Pandora. Had she not already enough injuries to deal with? Trudy groaned again and rubbed her now sore shoulder whilst glaring at the bow at her feet. Hunching down she eyed it closer, it truly looked mighty. It was a double bow from what she could tell and Trudy knew that only the best archers of the Na'vi tribes had the skill to wield such a big thing. One question thought was left after a second or two inspecting the bow and warily squinting up at the canopy above Trudy…where the fuck was the owner of that thing?!

She just hoped he or she had survived, the feathers and beats on it spoke of the rank of the owner, even Trudy knew that much that the Na'vi ranks could be assumed by the quality of their adornments, cloths and such. Debating with herself she finally picked it up and tossed it into her trusty as well as damaged baby with a low curse to then climb in right after and nearly tripping over it. Glaring at the uncooperative bow she secured it before she crawled literally back into the pilot seat on all fours. Damn, was she exhausted and sore and the nose did now hurt like a bitch! Still Trudy did not stop until she was belted again. Just when she was mere millimeters away from pushing the starter button; her earlier question got finally answered. Albeit a little in a strange way.

And she found out at the same moment that she was royally screwed.

Right at the same time a tall Na'vi male crashed out of the sky and into the clearing to her left by using the foliage above to stop his descent down and bleeding profoundly out of several bullet wounds, a group of the AMP suit troops came through the ferns across her position to stumble into the very same clearing. The Na'vi caused the incomers to stop startled at his sudden approach; they nearly dropped over each other in their shock and for moments cuss words in two and more languages one native to Pandora several others not filled the clearing out. Trudy literally froze mid-move. Gulping was all she could do in that moment but then she identified the cussing voice of the troop's leader as that of her former side gunner Wainfleed.

He now hoisted the tall Na'vi up by his queue and to her horror held his knife at it to server it. Trudy, didn't think, couldn't think for once she just…reacted. Jake had told her what it meant to have this neural strands cut off. Shuddering she decided that this would not be her former gunners day and the finger finally pushed the starter, well, more jabbed it until the machine roared up in a sudden loud screech.

Heads snapped up and turned into her direction when they heard the uninspected roar but she was already up and had turned when the bastards in the clearing got their bearings back into their brains. The sound of the automatic guns falling and clicking into position had their eyes go comically big before everyone dropped what they just did and just turned to give tails to the angry as hell at them glaring Trudy.

"Eat dust you assholes!" She calmly spoke over the micro installed in her Samson before she opened the fire.

Trudy's Samson swayed slightly when the machine guns fired at the fleeing mercenaries and former marines. But she managed it to hold position enough to send them practically flying in their haste to get away from the more than mad woman in the fighting machine. Wainfleed being one of the fastest of them, she noted dryly before she moved forward until her Samson blocked any shooting line of the now back at her firing AMP Suit wearers. More out of habit she hit the button for the missiles to then remember that she had already fired them all, Trudy really did not expect to have one left…she truly didn't, never less, the sudden loud mechanic sound of one slipping into firing position caught even her by surprise.

"Ooops! I have one left? Must have been stuck before…" Her sudden words over the still open com line had the mercenaries cringe in return.

Wainfleet gave her a wide-eyed deer in headlines look before he cursed and run for his life. He no longer cared for the Na'vi male under her Samson, only to get away from the obviously crazed woman in the battle machine was his main goal now. A fraction of a second later the missile was fired right into his direction. To her uttermost dissatisfaction she missed Wainfleet but to her extreme satisfaction, her weapon took out nearly the half of the other suit operators with a big fireball. Firing a salve for good measure she did land next to the half unconscious warrior and tried to get him into her baby.

Even beaten and nearly dead, this male was fighting her every bit of the way. Snarling curses at her in Na'vi and English alike. "Oh stop it for heaven's sake! If I was your enemy I would have killed you already!" She did sound as frustrated as she felt. This big guy made it not easy to rescue his cursed blue hide! "You are worse than Jake, I swear!" Snapping his head around to her he snarled at her."You know Jakesully?!"

Ooops, Trudy thought, that got his attention…somehow he looked familiar to her. Going mentally through the pictures Jake had shown her earlier of the leaders of the Na'vi tribes she finally recognized the big snarling, albeit somewhat cute in a rough way, looking Na'vi. It was Tsu'tey or as Sully had told her the most annoying Na'vi ever; he was the current leader of the Na'vi tribe that Jake now belonged to. Although where the last thought before had come from eluded her entirely, Trudy shrugged it off and snarled right back into his bloodied face. "Yeah, sunshine, I do. Got a problem with that? Because I love him like a little bro and will not tolerate any kind of insulting of the big lug! And now stop fighting me and let me get you into the Samson before they come back and shoot us in our asses!" He eyed her for some more seconds; if he would have had eyebrows she was sure he would have raised them.

With a grunt he stopped fighting her and let her move him until he sat in the back of her Samson.

"You must be the pilot woman he spoke of, Too-dee." Wincing at the slurred version he made out of her poor name she nodded. Silently she began to treat the numerous bullet wounds that marred his upper body and the lower rest. Grumbling under her breath she tried to fish out one bulled from his muscled belly with a knife. Surprised that he didn't even flinch much, he may be an annoying Na'vi from Jake's perspective and hers too, to be honest, but he sure as hell was a damn tough one! Trying to make small talk to distract him she joked a little.

"What the hell did you do to receive so many bullets? Mount the dragon ship by yourself?" Silence greeted her than an unexpected short, pained laugh from above made her turn up her face to look at him with wide eyes. "You got to be kidding me!! You didn't…! Oh crap!" this moment chose her patient to lose his awareness. Trudy barely avoided it to have him double her over and both of them out of the Samson. Cussing she secured the tall Na'vi leader in the seat to her left and went on to carve the rest of the bullets out of his body. At least he did not feel this since he was out, Trudy thought wryly. Managing it to compress the worst of the bleeding wounds the woman packed the first aid kit away a second time of the day before she again crawled back into her seat and started the engines.

This warrior needed help from his own kind, quickly! She was no damn expert in Na'vi anatomy, hell she didn't even knew enough of her own kind to not bring more damage as help to a wounded! Grinding her teeth she managed to get the Samson up on a safer level and flew off into the direction of the sacred tree, his people would know how to treat him.

Of course it went not that smoothly for Trudy.

To deliver one wounded Olo'eyktan back to his people turned out to become a voyage of the different kind for Trudy and her poor battled Samson. Meanwhile the hell broke loose around her and the nature begun to turn against the intruders of Pandora, Trudy found one injured warrior of the blue natives of Pandora after the next. In the end she had six instead of the normally for four avatar passengers' size designed space in the belly of her Samson. Somehow folded and piled over each other or clinging on the sides of her poor baby.

But she had no choice, nor had the suspicious Na'vi warriors whose tails she had rescued on her way, under them the rainforest burned from the fire that the troops had laid in order to burn them alive and her Samson barely held the required level to avoid them all to be burned to toasts. When she finally made it out of the jungle two of them jumped down what lessened the burden for her machine massively. Now she could fly safer as before and she took off into the direction of the tree of souls with two guards, albeit wounded, running slightly behind her Samson.

Her cargo was fast emptied out from helpful hands but Trudy didn't stop there. She turned the machine around again and flew back to the still partly burning jungle. Maybe she could find some more. In the end Trudy made her way back and forth until night fell and her Samson had no fuel anymore. She nearly didn't make it back to the tree with her last cargo and had to land on the rim instead of inside the natural basin in which the tree stood. It did not faze the Na'vi, though. They simply climbed the natural stone rim nimbly until they reached her now familiar Samson to get the wounded inside, out and to their healers.

She still felt dwarfed next to these tall creatures that she had helped to defend in the last hours.

And her headache took a turn to the worst…the last thing she heard before falling into a sudden darkness was Jake Sully's surprised and slightly hoarse human voice, somewhere to her left.

"…Trudy?"

Then everything turned black.

Suryallee


	2. Chapter 2

**True Soul, by Suryallee**

_**Disclaimer; **_

_**I do not**__**, in any way or form **__**own,**__** any of the characters, storyline or anything else of the film Avatar! I also did **__**not**__** write this fanfiction to make any kind of **__**profit**__** from it. I merely wrote this for my amusement and that of my readers. I also want to state out clearly that any resembling idea to future or maybe already existing plans of a sequel( if there ever will be any) are purely made without awareness of them and not knowingly made in any kind of way! **_

_**(To the admins, I hope I did it this time right.)**_

_**Note, please read this before you read the chapter. **_

The background I chose for Trudy comes from an idea of me and is actually fitting the following story very good. It explains also, in my eyes why she helped like she did.

To any American Native who reads my fiction, I really hope I did not offend anyone here and also apologize for any errors beforehand and if I am wrong with anything written down in here, please feel free to correct me, I will then correct it immediately, I promise! To the facts I used, I used information of several sides in the internet for it as well as my endless curiosity when I was a child and the books I did read.

To 13oct on FF net, that would be nice, can you give me an e-mail address to work with? I will send the chapters then.

Sincerely,

_**Suryallee**_

_*native Na'vi language* _

_**Chapter Two; A birthday to remember**_

Coming to was an experience Trudy honestly could have lived without to experience it. To be blunt; who wants to wake up with the bad stepmother of all headaches? A groan warned others around the woman that she was aware again.

"Trudy? Thank Eywa and God and whoever else is listening, damn; I thought we had lost you!"

Groaning Trudy would have loved to punch Jake in his face right now…for practically screaming into her poor ears.

"Hush you _skxawng_! Can't you see that she is in huge pains?" This voice at least spoke hushed and careful not to hurt her more. She heard Jake mumble an abashed sorry and seemingly retreat before whoever had spoken before could hit him. Trudy escaped a sharp laugh, more a cough and laugh in-between; she could almost picture his face in her mind.

Two strong and much too long to be human arms, helped her up carefully. "Here, drink a little of this, it will calm the pains down." Something was held at her lips, it did taste horrible but whatever it was, she took a gulp or two before it was taken away again without to complain. Trudy would gladly have tolerated the bad taste for the hope to get rid of the massive pain in her skull every time of the day! It was then, when she was laid back down when Trudy finally noticed it.

"Wh…why can I breathe?" It was more a hoarse whisper than anything else. She still didn't dare to open her eyes, survival instinct telling her that light would only disturb her more now and so, cause a bigger pain in her obviously damaged skull. The female voice from before chose to answer her whispered question for her. To Trudy it did sound like that of an older female Na'vi…but who was she to tell them apart?

"You are in, what your _Tocktor's_ call, the me'di'cal wing? We brought you here since I could not treat you without your mask on and we have no troubles breathing your air. Your skull was nearly cracked in half and you were near dying. You have been asleep for what your people call a week."

From what Trudy figured it had to come from across the room, Jake piped his two cents in.

"Damn it, Trudy! And you flew around with that injury and played ferry for nearly ten fu*** hours! What were you thinking? You should have been dead a few times from what I was told…you scared me half to dead when you fainted, you know? Don't you dare to do such a stunt on me ever again!"

She dared a smirk when she heard what had to be Neytiri's voice scolding him for being insensitive and smacking Jake over the, what Trudy assumed from the sound to be, his head.

"Roger, Sully two, got the message." Trudy joked when the pain finally receded back into the deeps of her skull. She still did sound as if she had drunk too much the day before…although the thought of having been out of all for seven day's + made her shudder slightly.

"But I cannot swear to not do so again, sorry Sully. That's what I am for, ya know? And besides, it felt not that bad until the headache came out of the blue."

"Argh! Trudy! Just wait until I get Max in here, he will set you straight. Trudy, I already lost Grace…I don't want to lose the rest of you guy's too."

His frustration was evident in his voice but she chose to ignore it. But to ignore the Grace comment was rather impossible, even for Trudy.

"Alright, alright, I will be more careful from now on, happy?" the first thing she noted whilst trying to open her eyes was the fact that the light was dim in the room. Most came from outside and outside it was the night equivalent on Pandora right now.

The next she did notice was the elder looking Na'vi that watched her like a hawk, not missing a move or wince of her…looking into her stern inhuman yellow eyes Trudy gulped. Somehow she did not want to get on the bad side of this female…ever! She did remind her strongly on her mother, when same one was short before starting a lecture and Trudy guessed that this female could make even the hardest of their warrior's quake and knot their tails in fear.

"It..it honestly didn't hurt too much! I swear!"

An arched, hairless brow told Trudy volumes about of how much the Na'vi believed of her sudden statement. Shit! She felt like thirteen years old under that glare again. Resisting the urge to gulp she tried to look as innocently as possible…well if one didn't look to closely at the numerous scars on her arms and body or onto the telltale bandages she could make it, Trudy was certain. Who cared if she resembled a mummy truly good right now? However, the Na'vi wasn't fazed nor tricked, Trudy soon found out.

"Wish that look off of your eyes, it doesn't work." With a light, very light, cuff at her shoulder she stood and put the bowl away. From across the room Jake grinned at her openly whilst Neytiri hid her grin cleverly behind her hand. Trudy scowled at her two so called friends before she rubbed her sore eyes a little.

A yawn soon ended anymore conversation for good.

Trudy was faster asleep again as she would have thought.

It took two weeks before Max let her anywhere near anything resembling a door to the outside world again. Grumbling she had to give him that he was clever in his task to keep her in bed and out of troubles. He even went so far to declare Norm to be her babysitter! That made the life of her former short time lover rather a living hell. Not that he complained much, that is.

In the end, Max let her go, after he had lectured her again, what pleased Trudy much. In the end she got her will!

Well, the feeling did not stay long. Maybe she should have paid more attention to Max and Norm's hidden grins when she hobbled out of med bay on her trusty clutch? Because outside a widely grinning Jake in his avatar body awaited her to fast size her tiny frame, to then put it into a Samson and then having him tell the pilot, a former scientist who had pilot skills, to fly the hell out of here and to not let her open any doors or berate him before she was where ever he wanted her to be!

Trudy growled, cussed and even went so far to throw a lose battery at the unfortunate pilot…nothing worked. And since her leg was still in a cast and her clutch taken, courtesy to Max, she could only wait it out. In the end he flew her to the tree of souls, much to her astonishment. Trudy had not foreseen that. Nor had she awaited the masses of Na'vi, sitting around its base and chanting or to see Jake in both, his Na'vi and his human form.

The next hours flew by like a blur.

Overwhelmed Trudy watched from out of her honor place among the first ring, her friend fully give up his human heritage and become a Na'vi for the rest of his life. That she had been placed next to two really huge and stern looking Na'vi leaders finally occurred to her much later. One was male one female and both had this special aura that spoke of power to an observer. Trudy, being herself as always simply ignored it, much to the two's amusement and slight irritation of being dismissed so easily from someone so small.

But seeing her open happiness and hearing her whoop when Jake opened his eyes again out of pure joy for him made them smile as well as almost everyone else near Trudy. Fast her whoop and calls of joy were taken up by the Na'vi around her until the entire place was thundering from all the ululating screams and calls. Later Jake came to her with a plate of consumable foot for humans and simply plopped down next to Trudy.

She promptly hit him over the now blue skinned head with a chicken leg from the plate.

"Ouch!"

"You could have told me, you big nuisance! I was scared shitless for some seconds, honestly; how deals Neytiri with you moron all the time? I don't ever want to take over her job to keep you out of trouble all the time. " But her grin told clearly to the onlooker that she didn't mean it as it looked and did sound.

"Hey! That wasn't nice. Look, I brought you food and you go and hit and lecture me!" And his big grin, even thought on his Na'vi form it looked slightly scary with the big canines made also certain that the two were only joking around. The two went on to trade childish insults for the next half an hour, much to the amusement of everyone else near to the courageous human woman and their adored Toruk Macto. It helped to patch up some of the wounds the sky people had inflicted over the last years and in the late.

What Trudy didn't know was that nearly every one of the natives knew her by name by now.

Neytiri made certain of that beforehand. And her mother had added what she had left out. Trudy may look odd to the people, with her white, pastry skin color and being so small in size. What she lacked in size however, the woman made up with courage, honor and a good, fearless heart.

"You know, Trudy, did Max tell you how many Na'vi you did pick out of the inferno that day?" At her shake of her still partly bandaged head Jake nodded to himself. "I honestly didn't count Jake. Had no time to and it didn't matter to me at that time nor does it now. The only thing that counts is that they are alive." She took a bite of the chicken that he had brought, most likely from the base when she was carried here, to munch around on it for a few moments. "I had other priorities in mind and was just lucky I guess." She looked up into the now unfamiliar golden disks that now were his eyes and both shared a look of understanding. From one soldier, one warrior to the other. In such situations you simply didn't think much, you did act, no matter how many bullets flew around your ears.

He gave a short humorless laugh. Then Jake helped himself to some of the food, provided by a young Na'vi female on a leaf serving as a plate. It looked like the famous teylu to Trudy and she grimaced slightly. She too had eaten worms and insects at one time on earth, that time when she got lost in her childhood, but never had she grown as found of them as the Na'vi did on Pandora. It had taken her search party three days to find her in all the rocks of the valley that she had crawled into when the car of her parents got suddenly used for target practice by rebels.

The girl survived the entire thing only because her mother had, without warning, unbuckled her belt shortly before the shooting begun and thrown her out of the passenger side with a urgent; RUN; to rescue her at least. Her parents were found later, dead. Shot into their heads from their murders. It was her grandfather who had searched for her and finally found her, surviving on insects and snails like he had taught her before and with a broken leg.

Her family lived inside the former areas near the Mexican or better said former Mexican borders, of her people, dictated so by the governments in the long gone past. Even after all that time, the other people did not give them much more respect as before. Her father had been politically active because of that and for that, he was shot.

To be called an American native had become a curse and pride to Trudy in her later life, but she shrugged it off and went on her way. It didn't show much anyways, what helped her carrier in the Marines Corps and made her often angry and sad in return. Her father had been native her mother a mix, what gave her Latino features in the end, that and her clear nearly black eyes. They were a constant testimony to her genetic background and heritage.

Here on Pandora, only a handful of selected people had known about her history and all of them she had known for years before she told them. Grace being under the very few and that by sheer accident only. One day she had cursed fluently in her mother tongue whilst kicking an overly stubborn resisting piece of tech and Dr. Augustine had been there to witness it by chance. Arching a brow the woman had gone and straight asked one of the linguists what language Trudy had spoken without to tell him that it was Trudy from who she had heard the curses coming from. The sly woman had than looked up the meaning later after having been told that it was a no longer used language of some formerly American natives and laughed heartily with Trudy together later about the meaning of the creative curses.

Trudy was Mescalero Apache origin, came from the survivors of this part of the great family of the so called Apache clans, who called themselves not so. They had several names for themselves when introducing themselves but nearly all translated into one meaning; People. Ironic, Trudy mused to herself whilst chewing in silence next to Jake's big frame, watching his many adornments in the hair and on his body move in sync to his now catlike movements.

Wasn't it ironic that the word; Na'vi brought down to it, meant the very same…just…people.

Her sudden ironic laugh got Jake's attention and he gave her a wary sideways glance. Shaking her head she looked down at her nearly empty plate. If her grandfather could have seen her now, she was sure he would have hit her over her head for that slip.

"It's nothing, you big lug. I…just…realized the irony of something that I should have known already a long time ago." He gave her a curios look. "And what's that awesome revelation?" Cracking up a half grin she looked at him fully. "Hey, Jake, did I ever tell you the awesome history of Lt. Trudy Chacon?" At the amused shake of his head the woman crackled up. "Guess it is overdue, eh? Since you are my friend…well make yourself at home here. This will take us a while and not be repeated."

And with that she told Jake about her childhood, her time with her grandparents and her parents and her history on earth before he had ever met her. True to her warnings before, they talked or Jake rather listened most of the time to Trudy's stories and tales. All the time having that kind of awed look on his face that told others, such as Neytiri, to stay clear of the two for the now; that they were outsiders/intruders for the time being and that it was ok so.

Unknown to Trudy, she had half of the tribe around her listen avidly, via the poor Norm that Neytiri talked into translating certain phrases or unknown words to her and her mother. To say that Mo'at was shocked to hear what Trudy told to Jake was an understatement. Never before had someone told the history of the sky people so bluntly or calmly to her or anyone else of the Na'vi. And never before had someone told Mo'at these darker parts of earth's history, not even Grace Augustine had done so in the past. Her guess was that the woman had not wanted to tell them because they showed her race in an even worse light as ever before.

It took her some time to get it fully that on earth once had lived humans with similar ways of living to that of her people. More so, that the rest had literally overrun them in their greed for land, power and out of sheer ignorance. So, Mo'at thought, that had been the hidden meaning of Grace warning words of some days before Quaritch had burned down the Kelutral. That the humans had killed their mother a long time before they even reached for the stars. She had tried to warn Eytukan and her that those like Selfridge and the colonel would not hesitate to shoot their very own people to get what they wanted…she shook her head in sudden sadness. Now feeling the losses of the dreamwalker woman and her wisdom and her former mate's love and his serenity even more keenly as Mo'at normally did it.

It wasn't a wonder then that this Trudy had not relented before her fuel run out.

Silently she mused how many generations of suppressed anger had been on work that day unknowingly to Trudy and everyone else.

Unknown to Mo'at, Jake mused about the very same thing. Now he finally understood some of Trudy's motivations to help the innocent instead to simply follow the book, much better as he had ever done before. As he too did suddenly understand her strange war paint from before, the latter however made him laugh.

After explaining it to Trudy she joined him.

The later the night grew the more drunk the entire mass became. Courtesy to the out given Na'vi comparable to the on earth usual alcohol and from Max, handed out Whisky out of his personal bunk, the most Na'vi and humans behaved rather oddly soon. At least seen from the perspective of Trudy, who more than once had to doge one of the tall drunkards. Jake found that amusing, she could tell and soon she was teasing him back for that.

"So Jake…how is married life?" He promptly choked on his share of the spirits. "Uhm…good?" He gave her a suspicious look; Trudy could become really nasty when she was in the mood. And to chose from the smirk she wore right now, he was in for it. "You know, I still wonder how you got this lucky…" She trailed off and Jake, even knowing better, took the bait and snorted. "Must have been my infamous charm, huh?"

Just as Trudy was about to retort a sudden female voice from behind them piped her two cents in, in rather good English actually.

"Must rather have been something else, oh Toruk Macto!" Insanely laughter arose around them coming from those who understood the language and made Jake's tiny dots on his skin practically glow with embarrassment. Trudy grinned evilly over her shoulder at the daring huntress that wore the sides of her skull shorn off like many others too in the typical warrior stile of the Na'vi.

"_As expected, any clue what it was then?"_ She arched a suggestive eyebrow at the now heartily laughing huntress whose name she didn't know but already liked, whilst battling Jake's hands away from her that tried to silence her before Trudy could do more damage to his pride. Taking up the bait, the Na'vi female grinned right back at Trudy and Jake; _"No clue, maybe sheer luck, he is still a moron though, Toruk Macto or not! And your Na'vi is good, scywalker!" _She grinned like a cat, behind Trudy, Jake gasped.

"_Hey, no fair! Since when do you speak Na'vi language so well? Wait a second ...Norm!" _

To her left Norm gulped visibly and made a sudden dash to hide behind an amused Mo'at when Jake looked accusingly into his direction. Nearly everyone around them broke out into laughter at seeing this. Since Norm's avatar still was in the med station, his human form made it easy to hide fully behind the tall Tsahik and Neytiri who sat right next to her and glared mockingly back at Jake. Neytiri was barely holding in her laughter whilst doing it.

"_Seriously, when did you learn that?" _

Trudy shrugged, _"Around the same time as you, big guy. Grace and Norm were enthusiastic teachers and we had a ton of fun. Since you were gone for the most of the time we occupied ourselves with it, Grace was really into that." _She gave Jake an innocent grin…inwardly Trudy was slowly counting to ten. She never got further as four.

"_What? They were always so busy with their samples when I came back." _He glared at Trudy who shrugged again imperturbably_. "Yeah, that…well they had to catch up on them at one time, you know?" _

"_And Trudy learned a hell of a lot faster than you moron!" Norm_ dared to tell from behind Neytiri. Who lost it promptly then and begun to laugh wildly too. By now nearly everyone around them was holding their stomachs or was simply laughing hysterically.

Blinking owlishly at her and Norm Jake finally lost it too and begun to laugh also.

"Oh man, was that wise, Norm? The horrors her mouth could teach the Na'vi…" Jake rubbed his face while he tried to fully calm down.

Trudy just grinned and with pointing a thumb into the direction of the still laughing huntress behind her she finally managed to press out the words that doomed Jake fully for the rest of the night.

"_I hardly believe that they need any assistance from me for that anymore, Jake. As it looks to me, they have already more than enough experience in holding up themselves as it is. Besides the little fact that I still try to find out how you did get that lucky to get Neytiri to put up with you for the rest of her life, no offence." _

This time Jake just grinned at her. _"And as it looks you will have to ask that yourself a little longer, eh, Trudy? None taken." _Inwardly however, he prepared himself for countless more teasing like that and worse from his new clan mates for the rest of the night. Knowing very well how right Trudy was with that observation. Na'vi rarely held back in such or in showing their emotions openly either. He just wished he could strangle the pilot for stepping loose the little stone in the first place! At seeing her stick out her tongue at him, Jake lost it. His try to grasp her however ended with him just getting air instead.

And Trudy feeling airborne for some moments…just what the hell had happened here anyway?

She felt caught from a strong arm with wiry muscles that soon resettled her almost gently next to Mo'at…much to her surprise. Staring at the Tsahik for an awkward moment she finally broke out laughing at the pouting face of Jake who seemed to have a staring contest with the male standing in front of her.

"Now, now, Jakesully, are we getting a little miffed about having missed our target?" The mischief was clearly in the voice of, what she now identified to be, Tsu'tey. Just showing her his backside for once…not that Trudy was complaining…much. The tail clearly was the issue for those complains though. Since it moved amicably around and so, often nearly hit her, sitting so close behind it. Annoyed she battered at it when it came to near for her comfort. Hell that thing was almost as thick as a rope and she was sure it could do the very same damage if that guy wasn't careful with it!

Mo'at simply grabbed it roughly and shoved it to the side. _"Watch your tail, Olo'eyktan! You nearly hit her now twice."_ Looking over his shoulder down at Trudy he finally shrugged and stepped nimbly to the side so he would not hit her by accident. Trudy being Trudy, learned an important lection that night, well several actually.

One, Na'vi tails were good mood indicators and second, Mo'at was most likely the only one in this round that could get away with such an act and third, it was fun watching them. Curios she watched its tip sway from side to side for a minute, a highly amused almost childish grin on her face what in turn made Jake snigger madly along with several others.

Right before Tsu'tey looked back at whatever she was doing to cause such a up rise of hilarity under the others, a sharp elbow in her side jarred Trudy rudely out of her trance. Rubbing the sore spot she gave him the now already well known innocent look of her and earned herself a snort from the tall Na'vi. Across them Jake now rolled on the floor in his laughter together with countless others.

"And here I was thinking no one could be as troublesome as Jakesully. As it looks I just found a second troublemaker." Mo'at grinned despise the words and went on to eat some of her own food. Sure, Trudy could feel the glare practically burn into her skull from above; still she suddenly felt the strong urge to admire the tree.

Finally muttering something about sky walkers and their silliness he gave up and stalked away.

Much later the night, almost near morning, the most of the attendants to Jake's second birthday Party had already strolled off to their beds or simply cuddled together to share warmth while sleeping.

Trudy had, at one point climbed upon the stone rim near the actual base of the tree and now watched the others who were still awake with high amusement, making fools out of themselves. She was cleverly hidden from common view by some rocks but could still watch them all without to be spotted doing so.

Norm currently annoyed the hell out of the Ikran tribe leader, a female with a bright red paint on her body by holding her tail whilst sleeping like a baby. The Na'vi watched him with a wry grin doing so. His much smaller human form barely tall enough to come up to her ribcage when standing, made a cute picture when folded like he was while asleep.

Trudy had watched her trying to lose his dead grip on said tail a few times, or to shake him awake…nothing worked. She had finally given it up to try with throwing her arms up in the air. Trudy was nearly up already to help him if needed when the same female suddenly grabbed behind her and got a leather hide out of one bag placed there and non to gently wrapped him up like a child in it. All the time mumbling something what Trudy was certain had to be curses. She barely suppressed her mirth at the picture.

A sudden unexpected movement to her left caused Trudy half an hour later to look at the intruder of her little sanctuary.

It was, a still very drunk, Tsu'tey who rubbed the sore spot on his shoulder where the Ikran leader's stone had hit him only moments before. He seemingly had teased her with the clingy Norm and had gotten a stone accurately thrown after his retreating back from the fuming female, accompanied with fascinating curses in Na'vi.

Much to Trudy's immense delight of the entire situation of the still clueless Norm, who still slept with a childish grin on his face all the time through the entire events. Next to the now incensed Female Na'vi that had her arms crossed in front of her with a scowl on her sharp featured face.

Mumbling something under his breath Tsu'tey flopped down next to her smaller form in a graceless heap. The entire process was apathetically watched from Trudy. Taking a sip from an earthenware bottle he addressed her in a surprisingly clear voice.

"_You took nothing."_ He pointed at the bottle_. "Why is that? Even No'rm did."_ His eyes showed his drunken state clearly but still held a clear gleam that had Trudy wonder. _"And look where it got him." _She pointed at the odd couple_. "I am forbidden by Max and actually Mo'at too. She even went so far to promise me pains if I took as much as a gulp…does that answer your question, Olo'eyktan?"_

A deep throated chuckle escaped the warrior next to her at the last words.

"_Yes, fully!"_ His tall frame hunched slightly over when he seem to spot something in the still lively party place. Following his line of vision she spotted the still fast asleep Norm now snuggled up at the female Na'vi leader's side whilst she stared at the tree of souls as if she hoped for a wonder coming from Eywa. Bedside Trudy, the Na'vi's entire body was shaking from the effort to suppress his mirth at seeing this.

He pointed finally into the direction of the unlikely pair, with one of his four fingers on the right hand_. "If he keeps that up he will end most likely up mated to her on the spot the next time she sees him in his avatar form." _A laugh followed the bold declaration. _"What makes you think such nonsense? I think she will rather hand him his privates on a platter if she ever catches him."_ Next to her Tsu'tey gave a sputter at her wording and then sniggered madly_. "Or that."_ He agreed with Trudy after he had calmed down enough again_. "But then again, she is strange sometimes and no male dares to come near to her anyways…all the males of her tribe fear her temper too much."_

Trudy gave her trademark shrug at this; somehow she doubted it that the female Leader would harm Norm…much, for using her as a pillow. She knew from own experience how cute he could look like that. No matter what a nerd he could be at some times, an asleep Norm was simply too cute for words, especially when drunk. And as it looked to Trudy his strange charm also worked on Na'vi females.

"_Do you think they will mind much if she keeps cuddling him?"_ Tsu'tey gave her an odd look and then shrugged_. "No. Most likely they will be glad, as long as she does that, they are safe of her temper."_ Trudy gave him a wry look. _"Can it be that you were on the receiving end of said temper in the late? You speak with awfully allot fervor, for someone who simply muses about something."_ Tsu'tey raised a non existing brow at her before he simply shrugged again and then out of the blue, he flopped to the side without warning, to land his head right in her lap.

"_Umpf! Hey! Watch it, big fella, you're not exactly small or light you know?"_ For once she got no smart retort from the tall Na'vi. He was unusually silent and that made Trudy suspicious in return. Staring down at him she realized fast that he was…fast asleep? Groaning Trudy lifted her face mask long enough to rub her face wearily. Why was it always her that was ending up in situations such like this? From across her, Trudy's eyes met shortly the eyes of the Ikran tribe leader. A mutual knowledge and agreement shone in both sets; no matter what the species, males meant only trouble.

Next to Trudy the bushes rustled and then suddenly Mo'at settled herself gracefully next to the small human woman that looked at her with a helpless shrug.

"_He was suddenly out like a light."_ She told the elder female who was pointing a finger at Tsu'tey in a manner of questioning his currently odd position. Nodding Mo'at took that in stride. Pointing then wordlessly at the other rather odd couple across their position she had Trudy shrugging her shoulder again. _"Guess the same?"_ Again the older one of them both nodded_. "I see…"_ was all Trudy got out of the Tsahik and she wisely left it at that.

Together the two only fully sober people of the entire current population of Na'vi and humans watched in mutual silence Pandora's sun come up and coating everything into a golden hue.

_**Hope you had as much fun reading this as I had writing it^^ I had some good laughs in this chapter; I only hope the jokes have come out as I wanted them too…however, until the next update. **_

_**Suryallee**_


	3. Chapter 3

**True Soul, by Suryallee**

_**Disclaimer; **_

_**I do not**__**, in any way or form **__**own,**__** any of the characters, storyline or anything else of the film Avatar! I also did **__**not**__** write this fanfiction to make any kind of **__**profit**__** from it. I merely wrote this for my amusement and that of my readers. I also want to state out clearly that any resembling idea to future or maybe already existing plans of a sequel( if there ever will be any) are purely made without awareness of them and not knowingly made in any kind of way! **_

_**(To the admins, I hope I did it this time right.)**_

_**A question to my readers; **_

_**Please, if there is someone here who understands the Na'vi language better than me, or who knows the film better, would you be so nice and give me a little help here? **_

_**I am in a dire need of names, for the warriors (F/M) that actually **__**are**__**, Na'vi ones and not made up ones that have no real meaning…know what I am getting at here? I suck major in that department, is embarrassed. Could you please sent me some via PM or review here or via e-mail? **_

_**Mine is on my Profile, thank you in advance, Sury. **_

_**Reviews; **_

_Thank you all so incredibly much for all those lovely reviews and ratings! I never thought I would get that many in such a short amount of time…hugs you all for all the encouraging words and offers of help. I am nearly crying here. _

I have now a Beta for my story and since Mala aka 13Oct was the first who volunteered, I found it only fair to give her the position.

Beginning with the reviews from chapter 2 on, since there would be simply too many to answer otherwise, sorry^^! (Promises to better her!)

**FN reviews; **

Shattered-k3, I am from NRW. That is in the middle/northern lain part of Germany^^ I know what you mean, it is often easier to read than to write actually. Thanks for the praise^^

Midnightfairie57 , hello Victoria^^ blushes madly, thank you kindly!

Judilee, thank you so much for give me that feedback! I was worrying already if I have kept them in character or messed up. I am glad that I luckily managed it. I hear you with the inspiration problem, trust me! I have often the same problem and although I do not teach children I have a job that needs my full attention and a daughter (11) with Autistic syndrome too to take care of. So, you aren't the only one who hopes the holidays will come soon^^!

Katy23, thank you so much for the offer. I will try to keep up with your hopes^^

Na'viWolf, yours was without doubt one of the most comical reviews that I have ever received in my life, lol! Thank you for the good laugh and I hope they didn't wake on you^^ Eaww, a shirt?

**On AFFN;**

Ri-chan, thank you^^ I think they suit each other^^.

**Thank you all^^**

**You're Suryallee **

_*native Na'vi language* _

_**Chapter Three; of bows, adornments and other nonsense…**_

"You've got to be shitting me, Jake! You want me to do what!"

Two weeks had flown by, since Jake Sully changed literally his species and she had been used as a pillow replacement by a, what had turned out not much later to be an equally clingy Na'vi warrior when drunk asleep, to Norm Spellman (The human version of that kind of trouble), Olo'eyktan. Mo'at had chuckled the entire time with no offers of help when Trudy struggled with the nearly comatose warrior's head to make him move it from her abused lap and leg. Her curses, she was told later had highly entertained quite a few of the still awake Na'vi.

If it hadn't been his hands or at one time even the teeth, biting in the tassel on her jacket to keep her from moving him (Trudy cut it off…hopefully he would choke on it!) , it had been the three times cursed tail of his that had held her like a vice.

A not overly helpful Neytiri told Trudy later under pearls of laughter that Tsu'tey even he was their leader and greatly respected for his skills as a warrior as well as a hunter and leader; he still was feared for this odd behavior of his whilst drunk!

Only, on a side note, she found out much later too that he only seemed to act like such to certain people. Oh the joy of being one of them now had nearly made Trudy weep fake tears of gratitude…her ass! As she had told him, he wasn't exactly a lightweight to have placed into a human lap so suddenly! Her leg still held the blue spot where his head had hit it. Rubbing it now unconsciously whilst debating under her breath about the brain size of a certain Na'vi she eyed the item of her current dilemma warily.

It had taken Trudy a full hour of unwavering work to get him off of her again to then away enough to get home.

And now Jake wanted her to go near to this irritating, arrogant, blue striped, nearly ten feet tall nuisance with a tail again? He had to be joking! Her eyes clearly did send the right messages to the cringing Jake in front of the, against him almost petite looking woman. Because he instinctively took two steps back and crouched down a little like a hexapede short before bolting, wary of what she would do to his sorry and now tailed hide if she got her hands on him.

Behind him stood an oddly looking Neytiri who had the uttermost comical expression on her face whilst holding at her bow so strongly that the knuckles could be seen through the thick skin. She was shaking every so often violently in her valiant try to suppress the laughs that would surely have spilled from her mouth otherwise…if she would not have bitten so hard on her lips right now to hold them closed.

Inwardly Norm, who stood a safe distance away from the trio, counted down how long Jake's lovely mate would hold out before she would burst. Well knowing that Neytiri was fighting a losing battle…but he admired her stubbornness none the less. The Tsahik in training had blossomed over the past weeks into what Norm and Max called a very lively and utterly beautiful young woman of her species.

Now you saw her hardly scowl at all anymore. The emotional wounds, slain when her sister had died right before her eyes and later from Selfridge and co finally begun to heal under the constant care of Jake and his antics too, of course. More than one time the befuddled avatar drivers had watched her chase her mate through the camp and the woods or the momentary lair of their clan because Jake had again managed to pull of something incredibly stupid, spitting curses like a cat and one time even shooting an arrow at his vanishing hide in her annoyance.

The latter had not only Tsu'tey and Mo'at roaring in laughter.

Oh they adored their Toruk Macto, loved him to death actually, every single one of the Na'vi tribes did, but there was a silent agreement under them all that he was still a skxawng for most of the time. And since Neytiri had mated him, she was responsible for his slip ups equally to the moron that made them.

Seeing her beloved skxawng now cringe in fear of the wrath of one human woman made all the pains she was going through with Jake almost worth it to do them over again!

The black haired little female had a certain way to put everyone back into place that Neytiri hadn't seen anyone else besides her mother using with any success. Both of them just needed one look at the sorry victim of their gazes and said poor soul cringed away from them like her Jake currently did it!

She had noticed the other hunters who interacted with the avatar drivers and the rest of the skypeople react to Trudy similarly as they did to their Tsahik when she was mad; they hurried the hell out of the reach for anything that could be used as a throwing object with them as a target. Not even Sirjai one of the hunters with the biggest mouths on them and an ego to match dared to come near the tiny human menace when Trudy was fuming and that told Neytiri volumes!

Her mother however just laughed every time she was told that they had given tails to an incensed Trudy again.

One time two of the hunters had teased Trudy with flying their Ikran's over her so deep that they nearly could touch her…it had been the first time that Trudy had showed a skill no one had known that she had before. Not even the humans on the base had known that.

She stoically had sit it out for almost an hour before Trudy had snapped and went inside to shortly after appear again with a case made of unknown leather and wood, adorned with feathers and beats. It had been nearly as long as the small woman and she had just flipped it open with practiced ease to take an decorated bow of unknown origin out of it, together with an never before seen object on Pandora in this way made; a quiver, full with arrows.

A quiver, beautifully decorated with more feathers of unknown birds to Pandora and carefully on stitched beads and glass pearls in intricate designs, filled with neatly fletched, albeit being smaller versions as the Na'vi's, arrows with nasty metal heads on the tips that where spiked on the flat sides to hold better in the flesh of earthian prey.

A quiver, full with fully fletched little nasty arrows that turned out to be the literally pain in the ass to remove them out of someone's ass again when suddenly shoot in the very same ones from a steaming mad woman with a surprising skill.

As the two fun-makers painfully found out this way on that day!

Mo'at had doubled over in insanely laugher when the two airheads had hobbled awkwardly into the healer cove to get them out again! And Tsu'tey being the one he was needed days to calm down from his mirth when he was told later the entire story by Neytiri. Although he cussed about the pesky fact that he had sadly been on a hunt when the two had arrived back in the Na'vi camp and so, had missed seeing it!

That did not hinder him from berating the two not really pitied fools for their idiocy in front of everyone else.

Since that day, the hunters of the clan of the blue flute, the Omaticaya had developed a healthy respect for Trudy…especially when she was short on getting that blasted bow and her earth made arrows! No one wanted to experience too to have their healers practically carve them out of their own behind.

Jake actually had learned allot in his now full time, being one of them, more than the most had expected him to, actually, but he still had a lot more to learn and he knew it too.

Still, he tried and never gave up…even Tsu'tey had grudgingly noted that and instead of just teasing her Jake as before, he now clearly did put effort in teaching Jake what she could not. Neytiri, being a female and future Tsahik and not a male and a warrior/hunter like Tsu'tey and Jake. However you turned it around to look at it; a male or a female needed others of their own gender to teach them the roles of their species.

The opposite couldn't do that.

What brought them all to the current situation at hand…in a way.

Tsu'tey was searching after his big crossbow since the battle with the RDA troops and had told Jake to do so too.

He had seemingly lost it somewhere over the wilds of Pandora in the, what Jake's former people called; the Hallelujah Mountains, when he had fallen from the bomb ship. Since weeks now he had everyone searching for the big, red and brown and black colored bow. He himself often flew on his Ikran out to search too. The bow held not only a personal worth for him or the other Na'vi. Just like her father's bow, it was also a ceremonial item that marked his status as Olo'eyktan, as well as being fit enough to be used for battle if needed. Her people didn't create things that had no practical purpose.

It would have been a disaster if one of the other clans got their hands on it!

The clans did not normally inter act all that peacefully under themselves as they had in the battle under the great Toruk. It gave even certain times all a few years when they came together or better said, send their best to meeting places to compete in several categories against each other. It avoided violence for all of them in the following years until the next meeting. Norm called it the Na'vi version of the Olympic Games and promptly had a hard time to explain that words to Neytiri.

He hadn't been so far off the mark as one would think but still, off in more way that Norm could imagine.

Difference to the earth spectacle; here one could die! Most of the disciplines held competitions between the hunters, warriors and riders of the Ikran and Pa'li that had harsh rules and could end very badly. Also the skills of their weavers, and gatherers, their potters or that of the next Tsahik or Olo'eyktan of a clan got tested.

And Jake wasn't seeing forward to the meeting that would happen in a few more months the slightest. Oh, they had dismissed his attendance on the competitions for this time, well knowing that he was learning to be one of them for only four+ months now and for that, was showing impossible skill in it. From that, Jake was spared this time…however; they instead had declared him to be one of the temporary trophies of this year's games instead.

And Norm too, much to the latter's horror.

In short, whoever had the most points this year would end up having the pleasure to have Jake living with said clan for a year! Well knowing that he was mated to Neytiri, the future Tsahik of the Omaticaya made this all more dangerous for Tsu'tey's people, because she would be gone too.

And to speak of Norm, since he had proven to have a fast knowledge like the well known Grace Augustine, one that rivaled that of their singers, he had been doomed to learn that craft from the tribes elders. In short, he would handed over to the winning clan to be taught; willingly or not! All of Max protests had fallen on death ears in this matter.

It was no wonder that no one of the three looked forward to have that happen.

To top the trouble, their elder begun to keep an eye on the rest of the avatar drivers of the former human camp, seeing what talents some of these humans had and having to catch up on the losses from the war with the RDA.

And Tsu'tey, despise his numberless declarations of hating everything remotely having been human made, including the Avatars, wasn't too keen in handing the base with the humans over to the other clans. It was a status thing, Trudy had figured.

What brings us, back to the blasted bow that had found Trudy on the battle day in its own, weird, way by hitting her.

Said uncooperative bow from before was just as annoying as its currently supposed owner. And just as much trouble, Trudy found out now, weeks later. It had lain still strapped in the back of her former baby all the time. Much to Jake's chagrin. He had finally given up the searching, that was as fruitless as a dehydrated tree and had remembered Trudy telling him something about a stupid big piece of weaponry of the Na'vi that had caused the massive bruise on her shoulder by falling onto her.

He had promptly told that Neytiri and Mo'at and his mate and he had set off to ask Trudy what kind of weapon that had been exactly. All the time hoping that it was the cursed bow and that she still had it!

To his and Neytiri's, uttermost relieves, Trudy did still have it!

It had been faithfully waiting all the time in the belly of her former trusty Samson. That had been transported back to hells gate a day after she had fainted and been stored in the hangar hall for further actions without someone to look into the back drawers where Trudy had strapped it into…next to the large Avatar sized weaponry. She had found it when cleaning out her junk and not been happy to see it.

Now she wondered why she had ever picked up the cursed thing in the first place!

Why couldn't' she have left it lay there? With her, finding it and taking it up, Trudy now had a huge pain on her back.

Why?

Well, for starters, whoever picks it up when the current holder loses it under certain circumstances, had the rights on that blasted thing until the next meeting declared the new holder of it?

The clans even went so far to send parties to steal certain items on occasions to get their hands on the status-rights they gave the wielders. Not to mention that the areal under the flying mountains currently resembled an ants nest, because so many Na'vi run around there, searching for the cursed thing. None the wiser to where it currently was or who exactly, had it.

And here she was, holding one of the biggest of these status objects for all the future and current Olo'eyktan's of all tribes and knew nothing about it.

Poor Jake had been the one to explain it all to Trudy and furthermore he was the poor bastard who had to tell her the other…stuff…too.

What brings us, again, back to the current situation at hands?

Sure, Trudy knew from the history lesions of her grandfather that her people had in the past done equally silly things compared to this one here but she had never believed to get into such a ridiculous situation or position because of, one, weird, cursed bow!

Since she wasn't even Na'vi, or big enough in size to wield the big thing, there were certain rules kicking in here. Rules, that made Trudy cuss and then toss the stupid, troubling piece of wood right across the entire distance of the hangar-halls floor in her anger and frustration to now be in such a position.

Na'vi based rules that now gave her the status, equally to that of a child or a non hunter, warrior or Tsahik without to want that all in the first place…there had been a wise point in Trudy's thinking's when she had at one time declined Grace offer to get her an Avatar body. Somehow she had thought it not to be very wise to take that offer; well knowing in what troubles she already got all the time without one! Now she certain that it had been the best decision she had ever made!

And she would have had to give up being a pilot since no Samson was big enough for a pilot in that size anyways.

Beside the point, that Trudy had never wanted to become someone else as her human self anyways, an Avatar would have been such a fake, at least in Trudy's eyes and so she had refused. She was one of the few who were fully ok with it to be *only* a human being. That had been nearly two and a half standard Earth years ago and she had never regretted it. Now she was rather insanely glad for it too. Neytiri had added that this could have had for Trudy, even ended out in an unwanted betrothal if she would have been extremely unlucky! Silently she thanked Eywa for being spared at least from that horrible fate…not that said waneby mate would have lived a long life after trying to pull off that stunt on her.

But since she was now officially the new owner of that cursed thing until the next fight between the Olo'eyktan's at the next clans meeting in half a year, she had to decide who would wield it for her, since she was too small to even try to pull the string on the massive and not to mention un-handy big thing.

And someone was going to be as unhappy as she was for the turn of the events, Trudy was deadly certain of that little fact too.

No, actually she was really sure that said certain someone would throw a major hissy fit when hearing of whom exactly had found his bow!

Groaning Trudy rubbed her face in a weary manner, this was sooo going to majorly suck…

"Alright, folks, let's go and give sunshine the news…I am fairly certain he will love them as much as I already do."

With a tired voice Trudy went over to the bow and picked it up from the betony ground to toss it right away again into the belly of her new, baby. And if Neytiri and Jake threw a tantrum; she was taking her trusty Samson there and would not fly on one of their Ikran's!

End of story.

Norm didn't even wait for an invite; he simply crawled into the Samson head on until his now Avatar body could settle comfortably on a seat and belted himself, for what he assumed, to be the fly of doom.

To her uttermost satisfaction, no one of the two tried to argue with Trudy for using her Samson. They simply mounted their Ikran's and flew ahead of Trudy until they reached the currently lair of the Omaticaya clan.

In the end it was even worse as expected from Trudy before.

After all four had told Mo'at the news, they had settled to wait for Tsu'tey's return to tell him them too. The latter one promptly threw a tantrum that sent most of the other clan members flying in their haste to get away from their incensed leader. Cussing in all languages he knew curses in and throwing things around until he had calmed down enough again. His worst fears had turned out to be harmless against what had happened to his bow.

Then he had suddenly turned on his heels to stalk over to an unperturbed Trudy to glare down at the tiny human woman in his fury a gleam in the blazing yellow eyes that would have sent anyone else weaker as Trudy, running in fear. His tail was slashing through the air like a whip.

"Hey, stop giving me that look! I didn't exactly have asked for this shit to happen to me either, you know?"

Uttering a loud, frustrated, ululating scream, the warrior left the clearing to mount his Ikran only seconds later to get some of the steam off with hunting something unfortunate enough to cross his path this night. Two other hunters mounted their Ikran's too after getting nodded at from the Tsahik and followed Tsu'tey in a safe distance to guard him if needed, from his own anger.

"Eh?" Trudy blinked for some moments. "That went better as I thought it would…surprise surprise."

Behind her Mo'at got up with a darkly chuckle.

Walking over to the still after the warrior staring Trudy she came to a stop right beside the woman. _"He will not dare to bring any harm to you now, his pride may be wounded but he still has it and he will not lose it in doing something so stupid as to give into his anger now."_ She heaved a sigh. _"He will work off his anger now and then return when he has calmed enough and thought it over…with Eytukan it was the very same when he was as young and full of temper as he is it now. Those two had much in common."_ Mo'at fell silent and walked over to where Trudy had leaned the bow against a wall of the tree that the Tsahik currently used as a home until her clan found a new Kelutral.

There she picked it up and held it securely, almost ceremonial looking with both of her four fingered hands whilst turning around to face Trudy who still stood in the middle of the room.

"_Trudychacon, you are certain to give; Tsu'tey te Rongloa Ateyitan, Olo'eyktan of the Omaticaya the right to wield this bow and to use the rights that its presence gives the wielder until the next clans meeting, with me, the Tsahik of the Omaticaya as the physical witness in the eyes of Eywa?" _

**End of chapter **

**Don't kill me, ok? I had to stop here^^! Otherwise I would have ruined the next part…beside that I think that it makes a good ending for this chapter. **

**Until next time, Suryallee**


	4. Chapter 4

**True Soul, by Suryallee**

**Beta version! **

**Beta; Mala! **

**Thank you a ton Dear! I realized when working the corrections over to learn from them, that I have still so much to learn…even knowing the language now as I do. Thank you, for making the impossible, possible for me; bows deeply in gratitude. And I realized something else too, I am German and as such I often use speeches or comments that are native to me but not to an English native speaker. Thank you kindly to help me with this too, Mala! I wish I had you as a teacher in my past^^ It would have helped me a world. She went through each sentence and pointed me the errors out folks! This is what I call a true Beta. And I am truly happy that I got so lucky to get her help. Please let her know if you liked her help, I think she more than deserves it! **

**Love you for the trouble you went through to help me=^_^=**

**Sincerely, Suryallee **

_**Disclaimer : **_

I do not, in any way or form own, any of the characters, storyline or anything else of the film Avatar! I also did not write this fanfiction to make any kind of profit from it. I merely wrote this for my amusement and for my readers.

_**Reviews : **_

Thank you all,^^

Suryallee

**Warning! This chapter contains violence and bad language! If you aren't fond of that, or can't handle it, wait for the next chapter!**

_*the italics represent someone talking the native Na'vi language* _

_**Chapter four; 'The Clash of the Titans'. Or, why you should never put Tsu'tey and Trudy Chacon together in one place for any longer than fifty minutes…**_

"Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Shii…blrblch!" bubbles filled with curses rapidly made their way to the surface of Trudy's bathwater before her head emerged from the liquid. While rubbing her stinging eyes, which were burning due to cleaning gel, Trudy went on cursing and talking to herself.

"That freaky, three times cursed, arrogant, overbearing, bloody son of a bitch called Tsu'tey! Who does that dickhead whose brain is the size of a fly think he is! OUCH! This stuff hurts…ARRRGH! I am going to kill him! If I ever get my hands on that lunatic, I am going to skin his sorry blue hide and make myself a toilet mat out of it! Or better still, I will just kick his tailed ass up to Prometheus!"

Rubbing furiously at the smelly stuff on her body that still clung to her skin like glue, and which smelt worse than ten skunks put together, the utterly incensed woman continued to cuss in a way that would have made sailors blush. That was mainly because Trudy had been trying to get rid of the smelly gunk for the last three hours.

Under normal circumstances, Trudy was not a violent person by nature, but Tsu'tey brought out the worst in her in the shortest amount of time. So, thanks to everything that just happened, Trudy Chacon wasn't a happy person at all right now.

Does the above explain the sudden over enthusiastic cursing? No?

To see how Trudy ended up in this predicament, let's go back a few hours in time…

Of course, Trudy had said yes. What else could she have done? Although as soon as she said yes, some of the strangest events of Trudy's life began.

As always, things did start harmlessly enough.

She had just said yes, and the sound of the word was still on her lips; when a highly decorated and angry Na'vi male suddenly crashed into the standing circle of Omaticaya Na'vi whom were standing around Trudy and Mo'at at their new Kelutral. He was so livid that he was practically screaming, and was talking so rapidly in Na'vi that Trudy could only understood a few words of what was being said. The fact that he was followed by a couple of armed warriors from his own tribe didn't help Trudy think that this was a social call.

Whatever little Na'vi that Trudy could understand from the yelling warrior suddenly started making her feel uneasy to say the least.

"Mo'at? Neytiri? What the hell is going on? What's his problem?" It was Neytiri who answered Trudy, since her mother was busy talking to and berating the male Na'vi whom was taller and more muscular than most of the Na'vi men that Trudy has seen so far. As far Trudy could tell, the large Na'vi had an injury from the latest battle; because the left side of his back still showed signs of the flame guns of the RDA troops. Trudy couldn't help thinking that he must have been pretty damn close to the guns when it hit him for him to carry such scars. The skin was still irritated and red but otherwise, he was nearly healed already.

At hearing the sound of her voice, he suddenly turned and stalked towards Trudy who instinctively crouched so that she could defend herself if needed. Seeing this, the tall Na'vi warrior immediately stopped, and literally froze mid-step. With a growl he turned again and instead begun to pace back and forth in a cycle in front of Trudy and Mo'at.

Neytiri stepped over, warily eying the tall male all the time and begun to answer Trudy's questions in whispers.

"This is the Olo'eyktan of a tribe that lives south from here, far south. May I continue in Na'vi?" At Trudy's nod, Neytiri continued in her own tongue. From the sidelines, Norm walked over to the two talking women, holding his hands up in a universal sign of, 'no harm here'.

"_I am only trying to help Neytiri __to__ explain what's going on to Trudy. I can do this since I know Na'vi"_ said Norm when the large Na'vi warrior growled at him. The other Na'vi watched Norm curiously for a bit, but he nodded at them one at a time and kept walking on to Neytiri and Trudy right under the eyes of the clearly angry Tsahik whose eyes he avoided.

"_This Olo'eyktan has just issued a challenged of Tsu'tey's claim on the bow, since Tsu'tey had lost it in the battle. Normally, this is not possible. He and all other challengers would have to wait for four years until the next meeting of the clans to do this, but since you found it and handed it back over to our Olo'eyktan in front of Tsahik, there is, what your people call; a theoretical way?" _Trudy nodded shortly, until here she could follow the entire thing, even she wasn't certain what to make of it.

Neytiri went on.

"_He is angry, and does not want to wait until the next meeting. Last time he as well, the same warrior had challenged Tsu'tey but had lost in a fair fight. All the other challengers lost as well, so the bow went to Tsu'tey and the Omaticaya. Only the future Olo'eyktan's or current Olo'eyktan's can compete for the right to wear it for four years. " _Here the big guy snarled at Neytiri until a sharp word of Mo'at stopped him in the tracks and he took up pacing around like an unleashed Thanator again_._

For a moment, Neytiri glared at the male, and then she shrugged it off and went on explaining to Trudy about the contest and the rules that existed that had now lead to the current dilemma.

"_As I said, normally the rules do not permit such challenges between meetings. Who ever earns the bow, keeps it until the next meeting. However there are circumstances when this is not possible. One such circumstance is when the current holder dies; another circumstance is when the bow gets stolen. In that case, the former holder can challenge the thief for the right to get it back. The latter circumstance is extremely embarrassing for the original holder and almost never happens. Another circumstance happens when is an injury that renders the holder of the bow unfit to wield it. As you know, the last reason is what has happened here. _

_If the bow got lost in a fight like what just happened, and if the bow was found by someone who isn't a hunter, a warrior, an Olo'eyktan or Tsahik, or if the finder is a child, then the person who found it can choose a holder. Also as we already explained to you, if the finder is of no rank at all, then he or she is automatically ranked as one of the former, as a child or a rank under that of the hunters and warriors and above. In your case, this happened, although your case is complicated since you are no Na'vi and still a warrior originally, but the elders have decided to rank you in the ranks of 'no fighters' for now to get this matter settled." _

Neytiri glared at the tall Olo'eyktan before continuing.

"_He heard what was going to happen. Most likely from one who must have seen us at the base or from one of the elders. I don't know from whom exactly. But I think it is the latter, as my mother sent a message out to the other clans that are still in the area since the bow was not found until today. And now, due to the circumstances this Olo'eyktan is challenging Tsu'tey for the right to wield the bow until the next meeting…it would also mean you would have to go with him until then." _

After Neytiri said this a second flew by, then yet another seconds came and went and then Trudy exploded.

"Beg your pardon? Not going to happen, mister! I have enough of trouble here, I am so not going anywhere with this aggressive guy!" She jabbed a finger into the direction of the warrior who instinctively took a step back when Trudy raised her voice in anger. It looked like he had heard the stories that had been told about the little warrior woman, as the Na'vi had lovingly had nick-named Trudy over the last couple of weeks. Besides 'little warrior woman' the Na'vi had also nicknamed Trudy something else that could be translated to Spitfire in English. Naturally, Trudy was only called these names when she wasn't around.

No one wanted a repeat episode of the arrow tale with themselves as serving as her target.

Trudy glared at the towering Na'vi male warrior, which was the challenging Olo'eyktan of the other tribe; and in her eyes was a look of cold fury that would have frozen hell over if unleashed. Just as Trudy was about to react to Neytiri's information and explode in anger, Tsu'tey chose to return back to the Kelutral on his Ikran. Following him were the two Olo'eyktanthat had requested to call him back to came due to the challenger appearing at the Kelutral. Suddenly Trudy noticed that Tsu'tey had a third hunter by his side. 'So that's who gave Tsu'tey the updated news on what's been happening here' Trudy mused to herself.

With a look of suppressed rage, Tsu'tey wasted no further time and dismounted in one fluid move from his Ikran and walked past Neytiri and the others until he reached Trudy. Before she could utter a word of surprise, he had already picked her up bodily and practically tossed her over to where two warriors whom had just landed off their own Ikrans. One of the warriors who had been sent to fetch Tsu'tey effortlessly caught Trudy and set her down. At this Jake let out an angry exclamation and glared at Tsu'tey. Jake then walked over to Trudy and the other two other warriors whom were watching things from the sidelines.

The person who caught Trudy after Tsu'tey had flung her in the air was Awkey. He was an old contact of Trudy and was the leader of the Dire Horse clan of The Plains whom she had met at Jake's birthday party. Next to him stood the female Na'vi Trudy knew to be the leader of the Ikran Clan of The Eastern Seas. Stiffening her back in anger the Olo'eyktan glared at the challenger whom stood before Mo'at and Tsu'tey while calming her banshee down with soft words.

Awkey settled Trudy gently down but wisely kept a sturdy hold on her jacked in order to stop the livid woman from attacking Tsu'tey and the other Na'vi leader. While the scenario looked somewhat funny to the onlooker; the scene was actually quite a serious situation. By this time Trudy was so incensed, that she had actually managed to wriggle out of the jacket that she was wearing, despite Aekey trying to hold on to her and her jacket. Jake caught Trudy at this very moment, and held her tight. He knew her well enough and wanted to keep the livid woman out of the fray between the two leaders.

In the mean time, Tsu'tey and the challenging Olo'eyktan of the other tribe had begun to throw insults at each other, and slowly circled each other all while trying to find an opening to start a fight. Even Trudy, despite being as angry as she was right now, didn't dare to come between these two powerful Na'vi leaders, after finally seeing what was taking place. Trudy also knew enough to realize that this was serious stuff here, and that she would get hurt if she interfered now.

Thinking things thru, she decided to wait the fight out until a winner was declared. After that happened, Trudy decided, she would then deal with the winner on her terms. 'Hopefully it would be Tsu'tey' thought Trudy. She owned him one for tossing her around like a rag doll.

Standing next to Trudy, Awkey the Dire horse clan leader raised his non existent brows at the mumbled curses coming from the petite woman all were which directed at Tsu'tey. Exchanging a look with the Ikran Olo'eyktan, both barely suppressed a grin; the young leader of the Omaticaya was in for it after this was finished. And to judge from the way Trudy was currently fuming, a dart shot at him would be the least of his troubles, coming from this scywalker woman.

At the fire, the atmosphere between the two leaders was charged with tension that snapped so suddenly that even Mo'at had to blink when it did happen.

Tsu'tey, still enraged from the entire event from earlier, surprisingly wasn't the one who snapped first. Never the less, still running high on his anger fueled energy, he effortlessly made a backwards spin in the air, out of his enemies reach when the other leader suddenly attacked him with his hunting knife drawn. Tsu'tey didn't even waste his time drawing his own knife; he simply used the momentum of his evasive spin to power a second spin which put him into position to kick his opponent hard on his stomach. That kick sent the opposing warrior flying several meters over the floor until his back hit the wall painfully.

It was clear to everyone watching that Tsu'tey was using the unfortunate aggressor as a vent for his rage about the crazy situation that he was placed in.

Not waiting for his opponent to recover, Tsu'tey crouched down like a cat and leaped over nearly the full distance he had thrown the other warrior. Reaching him, Tsu'tey grabbed him by one arm and then flipped him over his shoulder and slammed him again onto the floor. Watching Tsu'tey beating and kicking the shit out of the other leader made Trudy painfully clear just how dangerous and agile a fighter the Olo'eyktan of the Omaticaya was when not holding back the slightest!

To her was also clear that the challenging Olo'eyktan didn't stand a chance with Tsu'tey. He couldn't even land a blow on Tsu'tey who simply dodged every attempt to hit or to cut him. Still, the challenger did not give up; and suddenly he managed to land a good hit and so got Tsu'tey off balance for a moment. That was all that he needed to get up again and charge at Tsu'tey once more. Again Tsu'tey dodged the attack, the only difference was that this time; he used his arms to block the knife wielding hand of his opponent and used his other fist to punch his challenger so hard that he was sent reeling backwards.

All this while, despite the fact that Tsu'tey's challenger had been using a knife, Tsu'tey still hadn't used any other weapon besides his body at all. From Trudy's perspective; that body was a weapon in its own right. Seeing how he used his limbs, strength and quickness to dodge, hit or kick the other to great efficiency made Trudy appreciate just how well trained Tsu'tey was. But the way the two Na'vi warriors fought wasn't like watching an old earth boxing fight or one of those old material arts films; this here was real, bloody and messy. It was as ugly as only real fights could be.

Both combatants used everything they could to overthrow the other, not caring a shit about fair-fight rules or such…it simply gave only two options here for both fighters: to be the winner or to be the looser in the end. Suddenly Tsu'tey made another one of those spins he seemed to be so fond of. While ducking down, he kicked up from that position at his challenger's ribcage. The sound of ribs shattering due to sheer brute force made everyone flinch.

Na'vi bones were extremely hard to break, mainly because the carbon fibers in them makes them very strong. Trudy knew that. Despite that fact, somehow Tsu'tey had managed it break at least two of his opponents ribs. As soon as the challenger's ribs broke, he fell to the ground, cradling his chest in his arms and screaming in agony. The fact that the fight was over was instantly apparent to Trudy when the Omaticaya broke out in whoops and the Na'vi warriors that had accompanied the other leader, to the challenge started scowling.

Or…it should have been over.

Trudy who was standing with Jack and the two other Na'vi Olo'eyktan at the perimeter of the fighting area gave a sigh of relief that the fight was over. Jake, Awkey the Dire horse Olo'eyktan and the Ikran Clan Olo'eyktan all walked over to Mo'at and Tsu'tey to congratulate them. While this was happening, somehow Trudy felt the strange urge to look back at the looser of the challenge. Turning around, Tsu'tey missed what his former opponent was up to. Unnoticed from everyone else around him, the defeated Olo'eyktan got up, and with his face twisting in hate, clutched his knife and threw it at Tsu'tey's back.

Tsu'tey who was talking to the people congratulating him, could not see the danger coming. Somehow, Trudy found her voice and yelled _"Tsu'tey! Watch out! He's throwing his knife!" _

To Trudy the next couple of minutes happened in slow motion.

Somehow Tsu'tey seemed to have heard her warning and turned around quickly. At the same time, operating on sheer instinct, everyone else moved aside from the group of chatting Olo'eyktan. Mo'at instinctively crouched down to avoid to get hit by any kind of weapon, and put her hands over her head for protection. Tsu'tey caught the thrown knife in mid-air, turned it around in one fluid move; and then flung it right back at its owner. The knife struck the defeated Olo'eyktan between the eyes and buried itself in his skull all the way up to its hilt. His body kneeled over and fell to the ground with a low thud.

Pin drop silence filled the Kelutral. Nobody even seemed to breathe for awhile and everyone seemed to be frozen in shock. Then slowly, without a single protest or making any noise, the warriors who had accompanied the now dead Olo'eyktan came forward and took his body away with them.

It was really eerie, no one spoke, and no one moved…it was as if everyone else was frozen.

Finally Awkey breached the strange silence. _"This was against the rules. He lost, and should have accepted that, instead he tried to kill Tsu'tey in a coward's way; by attacking him from behind…I pity his clan! It now has to bear the shame he brought over them!" He turned to face Mo'at. "Your clan has the right to declare war, will you do that or not?" _

At this Mo'at shared a look with Tsu'tey who, until that moment had been staring at his hand as if he could not believe what he had just done. Mo'at shook her head at Awkey. Clearly, to kill an opponent this way wasn't exactly something that happened very frequently. Even Trudy who admittedly didn't know a lot about Na'vi culture, this seemed to be a very rare occurrence.

After her silent consultation with Tsu'tey was over Mo'at said _"No! We will step aside from our right. I am sure their Tsahik and I will find a way to reclaim our honor and theirs in a less aggressive way. Eywa would not tolerate an entire clan being punished for the stupidity of their leader, who seemingly was unfit! What drove the former Olo'eyktan to name him his successor was something that I will never understand. This defeated warrior was a fool and was always too aggressive and never listened to his Tsahik or anyone else's reason. _

The other two Olo'eyktan's nodded and made a sound of agreement. That settled the matter and that was that.

Tsu'tey who had been looking at his palm again, suddenly looked up, raised his voice, and asked the two other Olo'eyktan's _"Does anyone else here challenge me for the bow?" _Both leaders shook their heads and Mo'at nodded at that as if she wanted to agree with their decision.

"_Then this is settled!"_ said Tsu'tey. With that he suddenly balled his hand into a fist and walked over to the bow, the thing that had caused all the problems to begin with, grasped it and then vanished outside without another word.

In spite of wanting to return to the comfort of Hell's Gate, Trudy spent that night, settled inside a side cove of the new Kelutral. Although the new hometree was big, it was not even half as big as the former Hometree.

While sleeping with an exopack on her face was uncomfortable, there was no way in hell she would have flown back to the base in the middle of the night, she wasn't that suicidal. Due to sheer exhaustion, Trudy fell asleep easily, but a couple of hours later, she suddenly woke up due to a noise next to her. Trudy's long honed reflexes kicked in and she shook herself awake. Her soldier's training made her grab a gun and position herself in front of the opening where she thought she heard a noise. Bleary eyed, she watched two large feet appear through the entrance above from what Trudy had thought to be a window. When Trudy say the rest of the inhuman tall body of Tsu'tey come in thru her 'window' she lowered her weapon and put it away.

Tsu'tey came into Trudy's 'room' and settled himself quite comfortably. Trudy, despite being curious about why Tsu'tey disturbed her, kept quiet but raised her eyebrows at Tsu'tey from under her exopack. The Na'vi warrior's response to this was to scowl at the human woman with his arms crossed in front of his chest.

Both kept glaring at each other for several minutes before Tsu'tey literally fired the first shot. _"Stupid tawtute! Why did you keep it for so long? All of this could have been avoided, but no, you had to hide my bow for the entire time!" _

With that he looked to the side with a huff. All Trudy could do after that was to gape at him for several minutes like a moron…who could blame her? Wait a second! Did he just accuse her of having kept the cursed bow by choice?

Gasping for air, Trudy closed her still open mouth with an audible snap behind her exopack. Then she suddenly stared at the impossible jerk in front of her with an odd look in her eyes…a gleam rather…a look that Tsu'tey didn't get due to the darkness surrounding both of them.

"_Tsu'tey?" _

She waited until he looked at her again before talking again…this time with an, much too friendly smile on her lips.

"_What?" _

"_Give me your hand for a moment, will you?" _

A completely befuddled Tsu'tey arched a non existing brow and then, against his better judgment did what she had asked him. His look clearly told Trudy that he thought that she had just lost her mind especially since she was lifting her exopack off her face. And that he didn't really believe her to have the power to do him any kind of harm anyways.

Much later, Tsu'tey would decide that giving his hand to Trudy was one of the stupidest mistakes that he had made in his life.

Because only a moment later, a very loud pain filled scream woke nearly everyone else at the Kelutral up. The strangest part was that this scream of pain sound suspiciously like the voice of the Omaticaya Olo'eyktan. What was even weirder was the immediate loud cursing in both English and Na'vi alternatively screamed from a female voice and a male one in utter rage.

When Mo'at finally arrived at the scene, Tsu'tey held a bloody hand with his other one, a hand that showed a clear and full set of human teeth marks whilst Trudy sported a fresh bruise on one arm and her mask missed one of the four straps that held it normally in place. Both of them were still abusing each other. At seeing Mo'at, Tsu'tey promptly pointed into the direction of Trudy angrily whilst addressing Mo'at in a voice that clearly told her that the warrior could not believe this happening to him.

"_She bit me! That crazy female did bite me, Mo'at!" _

Trudy not wanting to be left out rubbed her arm and also addressed Mo'at who, at that time had a hard time not to break out in laughter or alternatively, hitting them both of them on the head due to their childishness.

"_And he is a rude moron! He woke me up only to accuse me to have kept the cursed bow by choice all the time!" _

"_ENOUGH! _

_Both of you be silent. What are you, children? Tsu'tey, if you woke her up only to insult her, then you deserve that bite! And you, Trudychacon, you do not go and bite an Olo'eyktan…however infuriating he may be, is that clear?" _

Both chastised adults huffed at that, than at each other before both murmured a stubborn 'fine', and then started staring at the wall opposed the other. Seeing this, Mo'at rubbed her temples and finally sent Tsu'tey to his own sleeping place whilst she ordered Trudy to sleep with Jake and Neytiri.

The rest of the night happened to be uneventful.

The next morning, however; not.

Trudy, wanting to wash up before flying back to base, asked Mo'at where she could go for her ablutions. After thanking Mo'at for the directions, she left for the river all while ignoring a sullen Tsu'tey who was pointedly not paying any attention to her. Before leaving, Trudy had asked Neytiri for soup or anything else that could be used as a cleaner. Neytiri had told her that she would lay it on one of the rocks out for her before she got to the river. So when Trudy got to the river and found some strange looking green stuff that lay at the riverbank she assumed it to be the soup equivalent that Neytiri had told her about. Half an hour later, a scream of utter female rage rang through the entire forest.

This now brings us back to the Trudy, currently sitting in a bathtub at Hells Gate in the end, cursing a certain Olo'eyktan to hell and back whilst washing herself for a second time for the same day.

Trudy had innocently used the 'green soap' that she thought Neytiri had left for her. Sadly, it turned out to be something else entirely. Only moments after being hit by water, the strange stuff begun to stink so terribly that she nearly fainted due to the smell. Hearing Trudy scream, Neytiri and Tsu'tey both ran towards her. Neytiri who reached her first, immediately realised what had happened and promptly looked accusingly at Tsu'tey. But the warrior just shrugged his shoulder as if wanted to say; I wasn't it.

Of course, everyone did know that it must have been him, but since no one could had any proof it, Tsu'tey got away with it. The grin on his face when Trudy met him later on was all she needed to know about is guilt.

'Ok,' though Trudy while climbing out of the tub finally and reaching for her towel; 'if he wants war so badly, he can get a war!'


	5. Chapter 5

**True Soul, by Suryallee**

**Beta version! **

**Beta; Mala! ( I loved the sentence you added in the end^^) **

**Again, Thank you from the bottom of my heart! I am endlessly happy for all the work you did for me, I can't tell you how much I respect you for that. Thank you Mala, now it sounds better and is helping me too. I am currently rewriting 7 and 8 of the chapters, it will take a while longer to send them but I try to use the pointers of you to improve myself here. **

**Sury aka R.B. =^^= **

**Reviews : **

**Thank you for all the reviews I got, nearly 30 on all sides together. I am happy you all like story so much^^ Please leave Mala a comment she deserves it since she is betaing my fic for you all to make it a better read! All that reviews made me very happy, sorry for long wait but my beta and I agreed to not post before she went through my messy writing, I think it is for best. I know I am not so bad but it is still a difference if someone looks through your draft and corrects it before you post it. **

**Enjoy^^, Suryallee**

_**Disclaimer; **_

I do not, in any way or form own, any of the characters, storyline or anything else of the film Avatar! I also did not write this fanfiction to make any kind of profit from it. I merely wrote this for my amusement and for my readers.

**Warning of silliness and fluff ^^ **

_*the italics stand for native Na'vi language* _

_**Chapter fife; the war paint that wasn't one…or a plan that went wrong… **_

The late evening sky of Pandora darkened with its characteristic hues.

Max Patel stood outside in the dark. The area that he was currently working in was of the few maintained sections of Hells Gate. As Max Patel, watched the skies of Pandora, he sipped his steaming mug full with coffee, occasionally lifting his mask to take a careful sip from the black as coal colored liquid. Dark coffee was one of his weaknesses. Coffee so potent that it was too strong to stomach for the most of his former colleagues and army personnel. But Max liked it this way.

A movement to his left drew his attention, and made take a closer look at what was going on there. Max watched what was going on for several minutes before deciding that he was really better off not knowing exactly what Trudy was doing with those old paint containers. Shaking his head slowly, he decided to call it an early night and went indoors. As the air lock doors sealed behind him, Max thought that sometimes, ignorance is bliss.

Trudy frowned while looking down at her hands while thinking her payback plans for Tsu'tey through. It was sheer luck that made her notice something strange that led to her thinking that there was a slim chance of her getting back at Tsu'tey. The first part of her plan was easy enough. It was the second part that was complicated and it had taken some climbing and work to make it possible.

It was by chance that she had overheard the other hunters talking about the amusing antics of their Ikran's. It was when Trudy overheard this conversation, she started thinking that this information could be used in some way that could help her get back at Tsu'tey for what he had done to her. What she had not counted on was the stubbornness of a certain Ikran that strongly reminded Trudy of its rider!

'101 how to get an Ikran to do what you want.'

Trudy sat in the branches of the current tree the Omaticaya Ikran's were using to nest in, until the clan found a new Kelutral for all of them. Since the temporary hometree that the Na'vi were using for living and sleeping was too small to host the Ikrans as well, the Ikrans were currently nesting on another tree a little away from the temporary Kelutral. It was this little detail that made her plan workable in the first place. If it wasn't for this fact, other Na'vi would have seen what she was up to sooner or later. But, since the Ikrans were on their own, the only Na'vi that the Ikrans met was the hunters who came and went to this tree. As a result, the Ikrans were usually alone for long for periods of time. No guards were positioned at the Ikran tree, and no one looked after the Ikrans as they could take care of themselves. All the above circumstances were factors which made Trudy's plan work.

To find out which Ikran was Tsu'tey's had been easy, but to get the mulish Ikran to let her near it; now that had been work! This was despite knowing that the beast's weakness which was meat.

The Ikran of the Olo'eyktan was a fierce creature; and was bigger and wilder than most of the other Ikrans. His biggest weakness though, was his fondness for meat. Trudy had overheard the other Na'vi warrior's joking about that fact sometime ago. They had joked that Tsu'tey's Ikran followed nearly anyone who gave him fresh meat; especially what a Na'vi called Yerik.

It took Trudy some time to plan how to get Tsu'tey's Ikran's used to her. She knew from Jake that all Ikrans in general never let anyone else besides their own riders near them. Trudy just hoped that her plan would work and not backfire and that those morons that she had overheard were joking about the truth.

While living on earth, Trudy had often tamed animals like this; but to tame an Ikran was another dimension in comparison to any Earth animal. Still, she tried. In the end, it took Trudy much longer than planned to get the beast to like her - in a way. Her plan worked so well that after she was done with her training of the Ikran, she had to endure it licking her each time it saw her! Eaww!

Two weeks passed before the Ikran came down from his temporary nest to accept something to eat from Trudy. Yet another two and a half more weeks passed before he tolerated her standing on the sidelines, 4 more weeks flew by before he even let her touch him; and 3 more weeks not to mention much, much more meat passed before she could finally start working on the second part of her plan.

By the time Trudy's plan was ready to be put into action, she had become fairly good at hunting in order for her to get the meat that she wanted to feed the Ikran. The irony of the situation often made her smile to her self. In order for Trudy to kill as many animals as she needed, she had to brush up on her hunting skills. She even went to the stage of practicing her shooting skills with both a bow and gun. Not only this, Trudy even resorted to her childhood knowledge of traps in order for her to increase the number of animals she killed. When she finally reached her temporary goal to have Tsu'tey's Ikran used to her, Trudy immediately started working on the next part of her plan. But somehow, she couldn't find the energy to start on the next part.

All that work to only suddenly find out that she had grown so fond of the beast over the last three months; that she hesitated to take the anger that she felt towards Tsu'tey out on the now, strangely affectionate Ikran. An Ikran that she had come to adore in the last couple of weeks. What Trudy didn't realize at this point of time, was that her bonding with this Ikran would rebound on her later on in a way she could have never imagined!

Trudy's original plan was that she would make friends with Tsu'tey's Ikran, and then would somehow paint that Ikran with different colors that she 'found' in Hells Gate. The only problem was that now Trudy couldn't stick to this plan anymore.

In the end, she did not color Tsu'tey's Ikran pink or whatever other colour that she could have mixed together. Instead she settled for something else in order to teach Tsu'tey, who still was infuriating as always, a lesson. Tsu'tey's payback was something that Trudy felt that she had to go thru with. Despite the time that had passed, and the fact that she didn't see a lot of his blue hide in the last few weeks; Trudy still fumed every time she thought of the prank he had played on her that day.

When ever she had seen him in the past weeks, it was always from a distance. Jake had told her later that every hunter was busy hunting in order to feed the clan; since they had lost so many of the hunters in the battle with the RDA. What didn't help things was the fact that the next generation of Na'vi was still too young and was a long way off from becoming full hunters in the near future or attempting to become Ikran Maktors. Another factor that kept Tsu'tey and Trudy from fighting was the fact that the few times that they bumped into one another; Mo'at had prevented the two from getting at each other's throats.

Trudy sat on a branch next to the Tsu'tey's big hovering Ikran and scratched it affectionately behind one antenna. This made the Ikran make a noise that sounded like he was purring in delight. The Ikran love the attention that he got from Trudy. Tsu'tey never scratched him like this and he was enjoying the difference. Butting his head against her small frame for more petting, the Ikran nearly pushed Trudy down while demanding more attention. This earned the big Ikran a soft laugh, a mumbled curse and the desired hug before Trudy patted his massive head and got up…much to the Ikran's dismay.

Sighting, Trudy packed up her things, and started on her long trip through the jungle to back to her Samson. She had *parked* it in a clearing not far, but yet far enough for the clan not to get disturbed by it. The fact that Christina and Gregory had set up a new school with the blessing of the Omaticaya near by, had helped her plans along a great deal. Thanks to this, the Samson flying overheard became something that most Na'vi got used to over time.

Thinking to her self, Trudy felt that if her plan works, she would not be able to go near the big Ikran ever again. While this was really too bad, it was better this way. Of that, Trudy was certain.

Unknown to Trudy, for the last couple of weeks she had been followed. As soon as Trudy had vanished behind the greenery, Mo'at stepped out from behind the foliage where she had been hiding, just in case she needed to rescue the crazy human who seemed to be hunting. To her surprise, the sly female had been clever in her approach. In fact, Trudy was a lot stealthier than she would have ever expected a tawtute to ever be.

Not only that, she was efficient as well! Mo'at still couldn't believe the clever method that Trudy had used to catch the yerik. She hoped the young woman would later teach the younger hunters what ever she was doing. The traps were really useful and they seemed to work really well too. If they didn't work to well, Mo'at reasoned to herself, Trudy would have never hunted down enough meat to feed the Ikran in order for him to allow her near him.

If Trudy had been an avatar driver, most clans would have been already been after her. She was a born huntress, even Mo'at could see that. Let's not forget how many males would have been after her already as well Mo'at thought to herself. The last thought suddenly made Mo'at groan. She could only imagine how many arrows she would have had to remove or how many broken bones she would have had to reset if that would have been the case!

Despite everything, Mo'at had to admit that Trudy was quite brilliant when it came to getting what she wanted. Mo'at would have intervened if Trudy had done something nasty to the Ikran, but, she had not. And who was she to judge Trudy? In her youth, she had done equally devious and not to mention foolish things and worse to Eytukan. The dots on her face gleamed shortly in embarrassment while Mo'at remembered her past.

Grinning from the memories, the Omaticaya Tsahìk glanced at Tsu'tey's Ikran before she nimbly climbed down to finally go back to her clan. The fact that Trudy could take care of herself, was something that Mo'at had figured out a while back. The human was wood-wise, and even if the woods on Pandora weren't like the ones on earth, the young female had still known how to navigate around in them without attracting any unwanted attention. She unfailingly knew how to avoid to stepping on certain plants or lose branches in order to silently walk thought the forest.

She would make it back safe as usual Mo'at thought to herself. She also couldn't help wondered if Trudy had the slightest idea in what she just got herself into.

The next morning, as usual Tsu'tey got up to check on the tribe's Ikran's, and his Ikran in particular. He was almost sick with worry as he urged the others with him to move faster. Of late, his Ikran had been off food. As this was highly unusual, Tsu'tey was worried that his Ikran was ill or worse. Whatever he expected, nothing had prepared him for what happened later on that day.

Heading towards the Ikrans as well, Norm was trying to keep up with Tsu'tey who was climbing really fast. Since Norm was training to be an Omaticaya warrior, Tsu'tey had insisted on toughen him up - as he put it. Also, Norm was had no choice but to climb the Ikran tree since he had followed the hunters here to help them carry a few things that some of them later would fly to the base.

At Jake's urging, Norm climbed a bit faster. As Jake was climbing up behind him, he was right behind Tsu'tey when the Olo'eyktan reached the top of the Ikran tree, and took a step back in surprise. Unfortunately for Norm, when Tsu'tey took a step backwards he stood directly on him because he was so close behind. Before Norm could protest at this, he noticed that Tsu'tey was standing and staring with uncharacteristic shock.

"_What, in the name of Eywa has happened to my Ikran?" _

Pushing Norm out of the way, Jake climbed up to the Ikran perch and stood on the big branch that Tsu'tey and Norm were already standing on. The first thing that Jake noticed was that Tsu'tey was now growling in anger at the sight of his Ikran which was standing before him. The said Ikran had two new designs on the top part of his wings. The two pictures were parallel to each other, and were painted in different shades of white, brown and black. Despite the fact that it was usual to see an Ikran that was painted, the pictogram's somehow suited the large Ikran.

"_T__hose are eagles."_ Norm trailed off. Spinning around Tsu'tey stared at the scientist who happened to be an Avatar driver_. "Explain! And what are ea'gles?"_ Norm gulped at Tsu'tey's expression, but quickly begun examining the pictures painted onto the Ikran's wings.

Pointing at the first eagle, Norm told Tsu'tey of what he knew of those types of pictures and what they represented. _"Well, I am normally the wrong person to ask…"_ Norm started saying, trying to wriggle out of the situation he was in. He quickly changed his mind when he saw the fierce glare that Tsu'tey shot him. Gulping again, Norm continued talking_. "From what I know, they used to be tribes of native Indian people on the continent of North America on Earth a long time ago. They would typically carve something called a Totem pole from wood. They may have been for luck or protection. I am not sure of my information, nor am I an expert in this, sorry Tsu'tey."_

"_What I do know for sure, is that the eagle, which is a bird that has died out on earth a long time ago, were sacred birds to these people. Some of their beliefs were that the eagle helped something they called The Great Spirit travel to earth. For this reason, eagles were honored by most native Indian tribes. Eagle feathers were used only for important purposes during ceremonies, and only the tribal leaders would use them as decoration."_ After saying this, Norm fell silent and crouched down to look at the eagle on the left wing of Tsu'tey's Ikran to _study it again. _

"_I have seen this eagle symbol before. At lease an eagle symbol that looked pretty much like this. It was in a _museum_ on Earth that I saw it in." _

"_amu sem – what is that and why would the eagle thing be there?'_ Asked Tsu'tey. Turning back to Tsu'tey, Norm frowned and said _"a museum is a place where we collect and place things that have historical significance together. It is for our children to go there and learn from the past, and also see what things used to be like. I hope that is a good enough explanation." _

"_About the eagle symbol, I am not sure, but I think it was meant to give protection, or to bring good luck. I am not certain, but most likely in the past, the eagle image was meant to give higher, spiritual protection. What I do know and am sure of, is the fact that only a handful people still know how to correctly draw such pictures; and all of the ones I heard about still live on earth. This is amazing!" _

Since Norm was still crouched down in from of Tsu'tey's Ikran, almost talking to himself, he didn't notice the fact that other Na'vi hunters had climbed to the top of the Ikran tree after them. Nor did he see the odd looks that he was getting from the other hunters. By the time he had finished his explanation on eagles, he was the only person who hadn't connected the dots as to who the mystery artist was. Tsu'tey was standing and fuming with rage, and Jake was reduced to rubbing his face to hide his wide grin.

While all this was happening, Norm was oblivious to everything. He was too busy with admiring the work of art on the Ikran wings. The Ikran in question was currently eyeing him curiously at the same time with an expression that seemed to say 'maybe this one had some meat on him too?'

Suddenly Norm saw something odd, and reached over and fished out an object that was partially hidden from under a hanging branch to the large Ikran's left. All this was done while moving slowly and carefully, mainly because Norm certainly did not want to spook the big Ikran into attacking him whilst retrieving what ever he saw. What Norm didn't realize was the when he was retrieving the strange object that he has seen, Tsu'tey's Ikran saw what he was up to and almost seemed to flinch. The Ikran risked a glance at his rider who was currently looking even angrier if possible.

"_Didn't you tell me that Ikrans normally eat immediately after they kill their prey, Jake?"_ Asked a very confused Norm. He showed the nodding Toruk Makto his find. It was a chewed up piece of Yerik meat, which was still relatively fresh. From what Tsu'tey could tell, it was not more than a half a night old. At this find, realization came over Tsu'tey, and he got so angry that steam practically came out of his blue ears. Turning to his Ikran he crossed his arms over his chest and simply stared at him until the beast started looking rather uncomfortable.

"_No wonder you haven't been eating well lately!"_ Behind him, several of the hunters broke out in barely suppressed laughter at his muttered words. Without another word, Tsu'tey connected his queue to the antenna of his still cringing mount and mounted the Ikran in one fluid move.

"_Well, Normspellman;"_ He told the befuddled scientist_, "I think I do know one person who isn't living on Earth right now, and who does know how to paint an eagle!"_ Saying that Tsu'tey and his Ikran flew off.

Turning to Jake, Norm asked in confusion._ "Care to explain to me why I suddenly get the feeling that I have said something wrong?"_ Jake wasn't very helpful, mainly because he and the other hunters were too busy to laughing their heads off.

Reaching the Hells Gate base in record time, Tsu'tey only needed a short while to find Max Patel, who, to his anger could not tell him where Trudy had vanished to. Perched a safe distance away from anyone else, Tsu'tey's Ikran received a lot of unusual attention from Max as well as all the Avatar drivers on the base. Scowling Tsu'tey took off on his Ikran again.

Guessing where Trudy would be, Tsu'tey headed to the new school. Only to find out that Trudy had already left. It was now the children and the two teachers chance to get fascinated by the large painted Ikran.

Growling under his breath, Tsu'tey flew back to the base. Only to find out that he had just missed Trudy, yet again, by just half an hour. This Tsu'tey found out from some hunters who had just arrived with their cargo. According to them, Trudy had just been summoned by Mo'at. Tsu'tey kicked a branch in anger on his way back to his Ikran. To Tsu'tey it was clear why Mo'at had called for Trudy, it was to keep him from strangling her!

Looking at the symbols on his Ikran's wings he had to grudgingly admit that they looked odd but good. Even to him. How the hell had she painted them on the Ikran's wings? Sure, he knew about painting, thanks to war paints and such, but Tsu'tey had never seen a picture quite like the one that was painted on his Ikran's feathers. Nor had he seen such colors. Looking at the image of the eagle, Tsu'tey couldn't help but become curious about the technique that Trudy had used to get this effect.

Thinking about what Norm had told him about eagles, Tsu'tey also realised that he really didn't have a lot to complain about. After all, Trudy could have done worse to him and his mount. "No more meat for you today you glutton, you should be still stuffed anyways!" said Tsu'tey to his Ikran before he patted him. No matter what his friend did; he loved his bonded Ikran too much to stay mad at him for long.

At this stage, Tsu'tey realised that it was pointless looking for Trudy, and he gave up his hunt for the moment. Calming himself down by thinking that he could always kill Trudy later when no one was looking; the Olo'eyktan decided to go and hunt meat for his tribe instead of wasting his time looking for a woman whom he couldn't seem to be able to catch. Even as Tsu'tey began calming himself down in order to hunt, he couldn't help wondering how in the name of Eywa, had Trudy hunted down enough yerik to feed his Ikran whom had always been insatiable glutton. The hellion that he was after was small to begin with, and was a noisy Tawtute to boot… how did she manage it?

In the meanwhile, Trudy had received a lecture from Mo'at and two other elders of the Omaticaya tribe about why one wasn't supposed to paint other people's Ikran's. This lecture ended in an odd punishment for Trudy that would last for the next couple weeks at least. After that was over and done with, while Tsu'tey was still busy looking for Trudy; Mo'at talked to Norm and Jake about the recent happenings. With the help of Jake's communicator, Mo'at even spoke to Max as well. It was Max who explained things to Mo'at, and who told her about eagles and the odd coloring of the eagles on Tsu'tey's Ikran.

An interesting side development of the whole episode was that several of the Na'vi hunters had liked what Trudy had painted on Tsu'tey's Ikran and now wanted something similar. No matter what though, they couldn't figure out how Trudy had painted it onto the Ikran's feathers. They just couldn't get the same affect no matter how hard they tried!

When Tsu'tey finally got back to the temporary Kelutral after his very successful hunt, he was greeted by a bizarre picture. To his utter shock, there was the woman that he had been looking all over for. She was sitting on a sturdy branch while painting an Ikran's wing while the Ikran's rider was calming it down enough for it to hold still while Trudy painted as fast as possible. Glaring at the other huntress whose Ikran Trudy was painting, Tsu'tey was about to dismount and start yelling, when his Ikran suddenly recognized Trudy and was so happy to see her, that it licked her face in greeting.

In the commotion that followed, Trudy cursed while trying to reposition her air mask which had been knocked off by the over enthusiastic Ikran's lick. Tsu'tey nearly got thrown off his own Ikran who seemed to be overjoyed to see its new friend. The Ikran's whose wing she was painting, got agitated by Tsu'tey's Ikran's unusual behavior, and started moving around. Its movement caused one of the paint pots that Trudy was using to topple over and land all over Trudy.

The day finally ended with Trudy getting covered with the pot of paint that she has been using. When Tsu'tey saw that, he laughed like a lunatic. A livid Trudy was finally seen walking off cursing her bad luck in general and Tsu'tey in particular.

**End of chapter. **


	6. A voice from the past and the problems

**True Soul, by Suryallee**

_**Disclaimer; **_

_**I do not, in any way or form own, any of the characters, storyline or anything else of the film Avatar! I also did not write this fanfiction to make any kind of profit from it. I merely wrote this for my amusement and that of my readers. I also want to state out clearly that any resembling idea to future or maybe already existing plans of a sequel( if there ever will be any) are purely made without awareness of them and not knowingly made in any kind of way! **_

_**Reviews; **_

**Warning of strangeness**

_*native Na'vi language* _

_**Chapter six; a voice from the past and the problems that follow… **_

After the episode of how Trudy became the official new painter of the Ikran's of the Omaticaya and their warriors was over, all went a little quieter as before for a short while.

When she wasn't busy with bringing the teachers to the new schoolhouse, Trudy was busy with decorating Ikran's or learning how to make the color paste the Na'vi used to paint themselves and their mounts with. Much to her newly developed amusement and Tsu'tey's Ikran's jealously, she now sat often on the nests and drew colorful pictures onto the other Ikran's. He now had to share his former meat provider with the others and former was the right wording. Tsu'tey had forbidden her to feed his mount…not that she always held on it that is.

But what the warrior didn't know he couldn't blame on her…right? Humming Trudy gave him a piece of the yerik meat she had hunted down this morning for the camp Avatar's. Since foot was rare now after the RDA had left, she helped out in getting foot for the Avatar's to lessen the burden on the remaining resources.

Grinning and humming a tune she came back a few days after the entire episode to find Max walking a hole into the landing area of her Samson in his want to have her back there already. Waiting, Trudy had found out lately, wasn't exactly Max forte but this looked more serious as usual and so, made Trudy nervous in return. She wasted no time to land.

"Something happened?"

He just shook his head at her question, then nodded to finally shake it again and caught her by the jacked arm to practically drag her after him to a side path leading around the medical wing of the former base.

"Remember that we today wanted to cut off the areas that no longer need power and air to function to spare it for the important parts?" At Trudy's nod, he nodded to himself and went on. "Well we did and made a scan to make certain we got all…imagine our surprise when we found out that there was a part still receiving power and getting it from a quell that wasn't the normal generators!" He shook his head again and turned around a sharp corner to shortly stop at a hidden entrance to an unknown part of the buildings.

Since he still held on her jacked arm, all Trudy could do was to follow him inside through a small air lock and then down a long staircase that was barely illuminated from floor lamps.

"We went to check and found…something amazing!"

The stairs ended and made way to a new door and then a long gangway that did remind on the usual ones above. The ones that did lead to the labors of the Avatar link section. Slowly Trudy felt a bad feeling tie her stomach in a knot. What the hell had the RDA hidden down here?

"I know what you think. It wasn't the RDA nor was it the military who build this sector, Trudy. Actually none had documents about it and they never knew it was here…but I found out who did build it. It was Dr. Bernstein, who was here a long time before you even came here. That was in the beginning of the entire base actually. And he was one of the founders and first builders of the Avatars."

Now she was curios too.

They finally reached the door that indeed did lead to a lab that was build in three big rooms and held a fourth that was an actual running link-center with fife places to link a driver to his Avatar. But what her attention more was the second one of the lab's, it held nearly eight big cubicles in that drifted Avatars she did not know about. And Trudy had seen them all of that she was certain!

"When he went back to earth to study more, he gave it over to Grace, his protégée and she has kept it from Selfridge and Co and even me, for safety measures over the last years…can you believe that?"

Some of the Avatar's looked obviously dead, the water inside was already coloring and she had to gulp seeing some of them because they looked…oddly miss-formed or such. Two of Max co-workers were already busy to move them to get the cargo out and away. It stunk! Trudy didn't envy them to do this job!

"She used them under his instructions in the last years to re-grow Avatars in order one got lost or irreparable damaged…what didn't work out good. So both started an experiment that took a few years of work until it did, work. They tried to grow an original Avatar for a user on Pandora. "

Two more tanks were empty. And they looked as if they hadn't been used for a while or ever before.

"Grace had help from Dr. Bishop, Angela Bishop, who got killed a year ago when the viper wolves managed to find a hole in the encampment, remember that day? It was the same day when they killed the two marines in the hangar with the Samson's."

Oh yes, she did remember that day…it could have easily been her that day. The two had stand on guard and never had a chance to escape the fast beasts. Luckily Trudy had not felt well that day and so spend the night in medical instead on guard watch with them. In the rest of the cylindrical tanks, actually fife of the Avatar's were alive and nearly or fully grown out. From what she could tell and those had four people from the base standing near them discussing softly something as it looked to Trudy. Four people like her, who never applied to the Avatar program and from what she did know of, never wanted to drive one, just like she never had wanted it herself.

Suddenly the knot in her stomach was back and had brought a friend as it seemed to Trudy.

"Trudy? Hey Trudy!" Max waved a hand in front of Trudy's face impatiently. "Ah, now you listen again, anyways, she must have done the rest of the work all alone! Now I know why she wanted to talk to me so badly a few days before all went down the drain; she must have wanted to tell me about the hidden lab, curse it, and I had no time that day!"

A curios Norm who was awake in his human body currently checked the data pat on one of the tanks with a wide eyed look, then he whistled. "Damn, Trudy! The one she grew for you is gorgeous!"

That was the last thing Trudy heard before she fainted.

"Trudy? She is coming to, Max, get me a glass of water, someone please? Ah, thank you Christine…here drink that, it helps." Norm was helping Trudy to sit up and hold the glass steady. "If I had known that Max didn't told you already, I would have said nothing, sorry. I didn't know you dislike them that much…"

She shook her head at him.

"It's not that, Norm, I was simply shocked that she did that even knowing I did not want one! She asked me once and I flat out refused. I never wanted to be someone else as me, Norm. I don't need a new body to do my job, so why getting one?"

He nodded at that.

"Not even curios of what she looks like?" He teased Trudy with a smile…grudgingly she had to give; curios she was. So Trudy ended up in front of one of the tanks that had been moved to the normal level of the building to better check on Avatar's inside the tanks. In the meanwhile Max droned on anew, albeit this time he was more careful not to overwhelm Trudy as before.

"As it looks she took the needed scans and samples from your personal file, made when you were sent to Pandora as a routine check. From one of the logs she made I found out that she made them in order for something like this happening in the future, although, it wasn't exactly what she feared what would happen. However, she deliberately chose people she trusted and who did not want one and would alarm the RDA guys…I needed a while to figure out why.

One of her reasons was that no one would have expected the others or you to have an Avatar. Another was, she wanted you guys have one, just in case you would ever need them and another one was; she did not want the RDA find out anything about it that she and Dr. Bernstein had found a way to grow Avatars here on Pandora in an much shorter and not so complicated way as they still use it on earth and build a secret lab under their nose."

Trudy was shocked.

Tears were making her eyes sting a little but she blinked them away. Right this moment she felt a little like a child again, like when she had lost her parents…it wasn't a nice feeling. She had liked Grace a big deal, like Max and many others too. She had had her respect and now, gratitude for all the things she had done for Trudy. It hurt to hear Max tell her this.

"They are really 100% ok?"

Max nodded. "Yes, actually they miss lots of errors that the others from earth still have."

At that admission she gave him a befuddled look. "What do you mean with that?" Max grinned and climbed down from the higher up platform he had stood upon to have a better look on the Avatar on that he just had made a check.

"Umpf! I mean…no! Let me begin anew. Normally, as you know, Na'vi has four fingers, for example." He waited until she nodded. "Good, Avatar's usually have the human version of fife, since our genetic is used to build them, so far you can follow, I am certain."

He waited again for a confirming nod from Trudy and walked over to a terminal to search for something as it looked. In the meanwhile he talked again.

"I will spare you the complicated details of how much else can go wrong; let's just say…ah here it is!"

He pointed at the picture that just appeared on the screen. It showed the brain and body-scans of a full Na'vi and that of a Human and that of an Avatar in 3D. Marking parts of it red he pointed at the parts. "The tail is mostly a problem on the Avatars. In the most cases it does not grow out enough to balance the body correctly and so leads to trouble for the driver to keep his or her balance all the time. In the earlier days, this was an often appearing error that was nearly eliminated in the later years. It still happens though, from time to time."

The next part he showed Trudy and a fascinated Norm was the hands.

"As you can see, the Na'vi never had fifth finger, not even evolutionary wise, they always had only four the same goes for toes. We once checked for a second arm even but found only rudimentary bone leftovers from a far distance in the past. The consensus is that they must have developed out of an ape like race that is no more on the planet. But it wasn't one that now lives on Pandora, we checked the DNA. And one thing more; Trudy, I would say you never say any animal here have a fur?"

He waited until she nodded. "No. I was under the impression that none here has developed fur, why do you ask?"

Max grinned and groaning, Trudy prepared herself for one of his speeches.

"Well, there are as good as none. Only the Na'vi still have hair, what puzzled us all for a long while. From what we found out through digging up old bones and checking the DNA of them, Pandora had had a time with fur clad animals in the past. But out of a point we do not really know about much, the weather went warmer on the entire moon and so it wasn't longer needed. The Na'vi are actually the only ones left who still have hair on the body but only on the head and the end of their tails. We figured they kept it to protect the queue and the rest is a leftover."

The next point he pointed was the brain.

"Did you two ever notice how often the queues of the Avatar's are shorter as that of full Na'vi? No? Well, they often are. Grace noticed this first and oddly the observation wasn't even hers, it was that of a Na'vi child that told her that it pitied her coworker in the school. After being asked why, Grace was told, because her queue looked so ugly…first Grace thought of something different as to what the child was referring to. Namely; that she thought that because they maybe looked different, but the child corrected her later in that thinking in telling Grace that the queue was shorter as average and so, considered as ugly from the Na'vi!" He grinned at Norm and Trudy who looked oddly amused back at him.

"So what is mine then, Max? Average?" Norm asked jokingly and got a headshake from the Doctor.

"No, actually yours and Jakes too are just above the length of the most others, what is rare. Christine's Avatar has one like that too but the rest here on the base have average length at best. It is still a problem that has actually a practical background for the Na'vi what ended into an odd beauty sign for them; the longer the queue is, the better is it for a connection in what the Na'vi call tsahaylu. Think of using a weapon like the bow with not enough range to draw the string since the connection is too short.

An archer needs to have his hands free and need actually a space to work with it, drawing the string and such as told before. Someone who has a shorter one has not enough leverage to use it from onto a Pa'li or an Ikran so the better hunters are mostly the ones with a longer queue, can you follow? It is a survival instinct that plays in here"

Trudy and Norm nodded.

"Under the Na'vi that ended in an instinctual beauty ideal that has to do with the queue or better, the length of it. The longer the braid is the more beautiful one is considered under the Na'vi, strange, isn't it? Different species, different ideal. "

All laughed here.

"I noticed that Neytiri and Tsu'tey have longer than normal ones…make me rethink some reactions of the Omaticaya to them to see them now in a different light…" Norm trailed off. Max nodded at that."I am certain, I would do too, and however, the last part is the nose. That of an Avatar is more defined like that of a Human that of the Na'vi is more cat-like and flat. Some of the drivers reported trouble with breathing through the nose in the past and we found out, it has to do with it. The form seems unfit for this world somehow…we still try to find that error out. There is still to mention that the body of an Avatar is often smaller in size as that of a Na'vi and female Avatar's have a slightly bigger bosom as normal for a pure Na'vi but not overly so. Mostly our Avatars are stockier in size and form as the Na'vi, what is to blame on our DNA part, sadly."

Trudy had left an hour later. Right now she sat in her tiny room and hugged a pillow.

She was sure that norm was currently telling Jake and Neytiri the news and if those two knew them, Mo'at and the rest of the Na'vi would do so too very soon. Somehow that thought wasn't really appealing to the woman. Actually a part of why she had never wanted an Avatar was a kind of self preventing instinct of Trudy.

It had to do with the day she first had set a foot on Pandora.

That day she had seen on accident one of those errors works out. She had been shown her quarters when arriving and seen out of the windows on the way. It had lead to the training areal of the newly arrived Driers and one had tried out his avatar that moment. It had been horrible to watch the tall blue figure write in pain in the outside. The driver had not lived through the first connection try. An internal organ problem, occurring when moving around for the first time and been overlooked from the doctor's before had lead to this fiasco in the end.

She had never wanted to try out one after watching this.

Not to mention that Trudy had a bad, very bad feeling about this. Turning out the light the woman settled down into a fitfully sleep.

Outside her window a seed of the tree of souls whisked along her window before it flew away in a soft breeze.


	7. Misery loves Company

**True Soul, by Suryallee**

**Disclaimer; **

I do not, in any way or form, own any of the characters, storyline or anything else of the film Avatar! I also did not write this fanfiction to make any kind of profit from it. I merely wrote this for my amusement and for my readers.

**Warning** of silliness and fluff ^^

**Notes; I was very sick the last year. I had several ribs inside my eyes corneas on both eyes that healed only slowly and had an surgery on one of them too. What is why I did not update for most of the last year. I simply could not read. I could not work on a computer and was forbidden to use any for almost seven months straight. I still can only use it in intervals only and not for a longer time. So, please forgive me for not update them all for a long while. If someone is interested, I wrote three stories in the Lord of the rings fandom and posted them last week. I hope that my next check turns out better when the last ones. I hopefully will update now more again. Sorry for the long wait, I hope you will like this new chapter.**

**Your Suryallee **

*the italics stand for native Na'vi language*

**Chapter Seven: Misery loves company… **

In the following days, Trudy did her best to avoid the avatar link station and everything that had to do with her avatar. Max, Norm and the others shook their heads at this but accepted it, albeit grudgingly, that Trudy needed her time to deal.

In the meanwhile, they concentrated on the other drivers.

Two of them had issues like Trudy too. One of them was Sam Braneys, a marine that had taken sides with the scientists in the battle and had helped the Na'vi. Sam had major issues actually; he had religious troubles, since he came from a sect on earth that forbade to even using blood when injured or otherwise. Medical attention was already troublesome enough, but the body of the avatar was a huge thing to deal with for the man.

Sure, being in the marines had fast taken care of the most troubles with medicines or healing aids but still the avatar was a big issue for him. Sam like Trudy needed a while to come to terms with it. Currently he tried to find an accord between his believes and the need to have more avatars to use them in aid for them all. He was a middle-aged man that had to face an avatar that was almost thirty years younger as he was. Sam was fifty-two and nearly in age of retirement. His was the youngest of the avatars alongside Trudy's avatar. The man was often found in the link areal, sitting next to the blue giant in the tube. Just looking at it or inside an old looking book and shaking his head, mumbling curses at Grace under his breath along with what she was thinking when she made him one. He was using the Bible to try to find out what he should do now.

Even Norm left him and her alone to their brooding.

Two nights after the others had found out, a tall shadowy figure crept on silent feet inside the no longer fully alert compound.

Tsu'tey looked around tensely. He just hoped that no one saw him running around here! Jake had told him, Mo'at, and Neytiri about the avatars Grace had made in secret. He was just as curios as everyone else. Actually he was probably the most curios of them all… if he was honest, what he wasn't. He refused to acknowledge it with a persistence that had Mo'at shake his head at her mulish Olo'eyktan.

Currently Tsu'tey had reached the window lane of the link station of the tall buildings, situated on the northern side of the compound. Directly before it, lay the garden and the housing for the avatars not on use from the drivers. His curiosity drove him over to the house to look inside. The avatar of Christine, the teacher lay next to his lookout point. Her long beautiful braid was held from her hands while the avatar looked asleep. He knew that she wasn't really here; still Tsu'tey couldn't help to wonder. He knew some of his hunters had an eye on the gracefully teacher of the children of his clan. As well as some of the other clan's warriors, hell, even Awkey was smitten with the always-smiling female. Grudgingly he had to give her credit for being uncommonly beautiful and her queue was as lovely as her character. There had to be some truth on the saying of the clans that ones queue showed ones character. Christine seemingly was a true sign to that phrase.

Well, if you didn't count Jakesully in, that was, that skxawng defied practically every rule!

Tsu'tey gave a snort and made his way over to the window-line of the link station. Sure. Jake's queue was longer than average and true too, he didn't look half as bad as the most of the other avatars but he was still a skxawng! Sniggering softly Tsu'tey avoided the plants on his way that could have given his position away and finally reached the first window.

Inside it was almost darker as outside.

It made it not easier for the Olo'eyktan of the Omaticaya to see enough. He finally spied the new tubes on the other side of his window and cursed.

"You know, I could simply let you in if you want to have a look around, Olo'eyktan. No need to spy through windows…" Max amused voice from above Tsu'tey made the poor Na'vi jump up two meters in his shock. Looking up with a scowl Tsu'tey tried to gather the rest of his dignity and wanted just to give the infuriatingly grinning man a piece of his mind when Max beads him to it. "Wouldn't be the first time one of the clans comes in the deep of the night to have a look around…" The man gave Tsu'tey a smile. "If you want, I can open the doors. Wait at the shots I will be there in a minute. Oh, and this part is still under security all night and day, due the predators." He told the tall Na'vi leader with a wing, before he disappeared from the windowsill one story up and closed the window again.

Tsu'tey cursed, he should have thought of that, he guessed, it was only smart to do so.

Trotting over to the big door, he grumbled under his breath; so much for staying undetected…

A few moments later Tsu'tey stepped into the link areal for the first time of his life. He had to duck his tall frame, since the ceiling of the place was much too low for him to walk upright. Despite his hate of all things human made, he was fascinated. Max was good in explaining him the several monitors and their specific uses as well as the link-beds and how they worked. It was clear that he had done so before and Tsu'tey planned to find out to whom.

So, he could lecture them later, not heeding that he was now equally bad as them.

Finally, Max showed him the tubes with the still unused avatars of Grace making. The man was rather proud of his mentor's accomplishments, Tsu'tey could tell. He could even see why and pointed that out to Max immediately in his blunt way. "They look more Na'vi as the most other ones." Stepping around the one that held Sam's avatar, he whistled softly. The human who Tsu'tey did know from sight, was a lucky male. The avatar was bigger when the most Na'vi, taller and broader in the shoulders. It would make the driver a fine warrior if he chooses to drive it. He could also tell that the cursed fifth appendages on hands and feet were missing on this one.

The tail was long enough for once to balance the body rightfully and the queue was above average too. All in all Sam would have no problem to find a tribe to take him in. he had occasionally seen the man since the war. Tsu'tey's impression of Sam was good; he was silent, observant and didn't skirt the tasks given to him that the others in the camp didn't like to do. The former warrior was a calm character with a sharp sense of humor. He had watched the reminding humans for quite some time and knew this to be true. Overall, Sam would be a good hunter and warrior once trained Tsu'tey could see that.

The next tube held a surprise.

The body inside was that of a barely grown female. A female that Tsu'tey had no trouble at all to recognize, even looking slightly different from her current form. Luckily, for Tsu'tey, Max was shortly distracted or he would have seen the dazed wide eyes of the Olo'eyktan and have heard Tsu'tey's struggle for breath in his shock.

Trudy.

There was no doubt on it this was her avatar. Jake had been right then, Tsu'tey mused whilst slowly rounding the metal tube that held the sleeping avatar. His eyes missed no detail. The mind was busy calculating and mentally evaluating all that he saw. Like Sam's avatar, hers missed too the extra digits that the more human looking ones still had. The tail was perfect; he could tell already that she would have a good balance later and the entire body told of a good bone structure and healthy frame. She would have fewer troubles with swinging or running.

He whistled lowly under his breath.

The queue got his inquiry in less than a moment; it was longer as even his! Good for a hunter on a Banshee she would have the envy of the most females in and outside of his clan when they saw her Tsu'tey could already tell. Thick hair covered it delightfully already like a rope; with a shudder, he ripped his gaze from it. Without her strange human nose, the face of his late nemesis suddenly became seductively eye-catching too. The Na'vi swallowed hard and noted that said new nose was better formed as that of Jake or Norm. She would have not as much of the problems with breathing that the rest of the avatar drivers had as far as Tsu'tey did know.

He had enough dignity to not look at certain anatomy parts; even the curiosity was killing him!

Tsu'tey was raised better from his sa'nok and his Sempul to do such a thing… still it irked him immensely to not have the right to peek. Shaking his head, he got his brain back on track. This was ridiculous! The glowing spots seemed to be in the right places as were the stripes. Like Christine, the teacher, Trudy would have no problem at all to find herself a mate… and why was that thought suddenly making him uncomfortable?

Tsu'tey scratched a spot behind his left ear in confusion and noted annoyed that he had a problem with it.

Why, he could not really say but he had, end of story. Actually, it was more that he refused to think about it but even the acknowledgment of that was ignored from him. He turned to Max who was the silently watching him. "Why is she still inside of that thing?" His finger pointed shortly at Trudy's avatar and then at that Of Sam. "And he too? It makes no sense."

Max sighed and motioned over to a sitting area in the station. This would take a while.

Later the night found Tsu'tey inside of his cave inside of the temporally Kelutral replacement, pondering what he had learned. The Tsahik had seen him come back but Mo'at had not stopped the obviously thoughtful Na'vi when he went straight to bed.

Actually, if he was honest with himself, Tsu'tey could understand the two, somewhat at least.

He wondered how Sam had ended up in the Warriors guild of his people in the first place, since his religion on earth seemingly was a rather peaceful one. Tsu'tey mused it had been out of necessity rather than something else. The man was a pilot like Trudy. Moreover, Max had explained to him that Sam's people did no longer exist on earth since the last bigger war had taken their enclave there out with a bomb that should have never been used in the first place.

Tsu'tey shuddered; the man was like his own people.

Only difference, he still had a rest of his clan, Sam had no one left, not even his home. Only his religion was left for the man… Tsu'tey felt rather bad for the man out of the sudden. It made it easy to understand why the man had fought with them against the others. Like Trudy, Sam was the lone survivor of his people. Tsu'tey could relate even to his struggles with accepting the avatar.

In his shoes, he would have had the same problems even his would have other roots, Tsu'tey thought.

Already his crafty mind tried out several plans how to approach the man. The best choice was Mo'at, he figured. She would know best what to do and say Tsu'tey were certain. Eywa would find her way to him. Of that, he had no doubt. The man was one of the ones he planned to keep for the Omaticaya. Sam, Christina, her co-teacher, Normspellman, and several others of the avatar drivers he knew from before the war.

Turning he added another name to the list, Trudy's and if he had his way she would not even have time to protest either.

Inside her room, Trudy awoke with a nasty feeling in her stomach. Shrugging it off she rose to get ready for the day. She stopped death in her tracks looking at her window. On the outside, a seed of the Atokirina floated along the frame of the glass. Trudy watched it float around the entire frame for a while. As if it searched a way inside she mused, knocking against the glass she smiled at the softly glowing Atokirina. "There is no way inside, you know? All closed to keep the air in." With another smile, the woman went on her way.

When she came out of her bath again, Trudy got the shock of her life.

Meanwhile she had washed up; the entire window had slowly been covered with little seeds of the holy tree of Eywa. The provided enough illumination to light the room! Fascinated she watched them floating in front of her window whilst shaking her head. What nonsense was this?

"Sorry little guy's, can't open it for you" She told them with a soft smile.

On her way to breakfast, she watched amused the seed's follow her outside along the windows, what confused her greatly. Trudy resolved herself to ask Mo'at soon what they probably wanted from her. Suddenly the entire bunch floated away.

"And you are really sure that this will work?"

Trudy asked Max this for the sixth time in the last hour. The scientist rolled his eyes and resolutely closed the lid of the link bed. He knew of her fear, although he had no doubt that she would be fine. Grace had known what she was doing when making the avatars. He remembered the episode she told him about. He had been there that fateful day. It hadn't been a nice experience to lose the driver along with his avatar!

Rather one of the uglier losses.

He could relate to Trudy's fears and worries. Still, her asking the same all the time got slowly on his nerves! Inside the link bed, Trudy cursed and then fell silent. Finally, Max thought, a little peace! Outside the link station, Trudy awoke inside of her avatar for the first time. The vision was blurry for a moment, and then cleared rapidly. Next to her Sam awoke in the same fashion. Both were shortly disorientated before that cleared too after some minutes. Overall, Trudy did not feel impressed much. This was stupid and a waste of time but Max had not let go on it, dammit! Sam's and Trudy's gaze met for a moment, and then both rolled their eyes in unison when Max voice told them to move their toes.

Obviously both thought the same right at the same moment.

Three hours later Trudy closed the belt of her new pants. She had chosen to wear shorts a short top and combat boots. She wore the nearly same attire all the time anyways now in her human form. It suited her needs better now. As alien as her new avatar body felt to her, it felt too hot in the complete combat outfit. She rather liked that she could now breathe the air of Pandora without the mask on.

All the scents were awesome to smell! She had spent ten minutes in the garden before she moved to the long-house to change her nightgown into real clothes. Just smelling at the flowers. Trudy realized how much she had missed this; the synthetic air from earth had never smelled of anything else as chemicals. She had hated it.

Now hundreds of smells attacked her fine nose, some good some rather bad.

She had taken a bath right after being released. The chemical stench had been getting to her already. Trudy hummed a tune of her childhood while she begun to brush her long hair. The queue had fascinated her for a while. To avoid it to play with the strands inside had taken some willpower but she knew how dangerous that could be. Often she had heard Grace mumble about idiotic drivers who tried it out every time anew.

With one last look into the mirror, she left the house in direction of the hangars.

The one, Trudy had in mind, was left empty now since the battle. The machines properly lay all over the Forrest, she mused. Formerly it had held the big suit units of the battle suits, now it was cleared out and no longer used. Opening it, Trudy looked around for changes, like animals nesting inside or such but found none. The accident with the viper wolves was still vividly fresh in her mind. Laying down the bundle she had brought with her, she eyed it one last time before she closed the heavy hangar doors again with a satisfied grunt.

For the next hours, all that could be heard outside was the soft Thokh sounds of her arrows, hitting the training puppet that Trudy had liberated from the storeroom. She felt stupid doing this inside but Trudy knew one of the Omaticaya was bound to spot her eventually if she trained outside. She didn't want that, nor their surely nasty little comments at her rather bad stile at the moment. She had known that she would need to train in this body.

It was not used to such work like her original one.

It wasn't the only thing she trained and relearned anew in the next days. Sam often accompanied her after the first day, having asked her where Trudy had vanished too the entire day. He began to take lesions from her in shooting a bow after two days, as did Christine and Arnd, the two teachers. Christine Sanders and Arnd Altmann came from different places on earth as Trudy. One came from the former British islands and the man came from Europe.

All four had a lots of fun over the next day's spend inside the hangar, until Max got aware and showed them outside.

Trudy dreaded the day she had to go to the tribe to paint the Ikran's again. However, it was actually Mo'at who found Trudy first to talk with her. Christine had told the Tsahik about Trudy's apprehensions before hand and Mo'at had decided it better to talk with the woman. What she found was a slight shock to the Tsahik. She had not expected how Trudy would look now. Too used she was to the looks of the other avatars.

Sure, the latest ones Mo'at had seen beside Trudy and Sam had been better as before but these two hit the top easily.

Groaning the old Na'vi took in all and resolved herself to the potential duty of removing many arrows in the future out of the behinds of unfortunate and idiotic clan members. Chuckling Mo'at wished Eytukan were still alive to see that, she was certain her mate would have had a good laugh out of it. "You are good in teaching them the bow." She told Trudy when she approached her and Christine. Trudy nodded and repositioned the arms of her friend so she could shoot better. Then she stepped back to watch Christine shoot two arrows before she turned around to greet Mo'at with the ritually, I see you, that the Na'vi used.

"Christine, try to shoot like this from now on." Turning finally fully Trudy walked over to a bench to sit down with Mo'at. "You want to talk to me I suppose?" She gave the Tsahik a smile. Trudy had begun to love the old female of the Omaticaya over the last months. The old Tsahik was always a calm and friendly center for the others around her. Trudy was no exception from that, she too felt calmer in Mo'at's presence.

The older of the two nodded calmly. Whilst watching she addressed Trudy in her short and stern way to speak. "You avoid us." Trudy gulped. Straight to the point, eh? She thought. There was no use in denying it so she simply nodded. "Yes, somewhat. It is… not so simple, Mo'at." The Tsahik next to her nodded, she not awaited Trudy to beat around the bush. Trudy was not the person for that. Mo'at gave Trudy a smile. "You don't have to fear those skxawng's they will behave, I assure you" Her eyes winked at the grinning woman next to her. "And if not I will feed them to the Thanator's in the Forrest." Mo'at told Trudy grinning.

That made the woman laugh hard.

"Even Tsu'tey?" Trudy asked Mo'at after she had calmed down again. Mo'at nodded gravely. "Even our beloved Olo'eyktan if he needs it! He can be the biggest skxawng of them all sometimes." Mo'at scowled what had Christine and Trudy break out into a new fit of laughter. "He is just like Eytukan was in his age." Mo'at shook her head. "Always needing to proof himself even he doesn't need it. Always trying to be the best. Tsu'tey is a good leader, a good Olo'eyktan but also he is young, nearly too young. That is always troubling at first. He still needs to grow into his ruler ship and into himself. Such things do not happen over a night but over time."

She gave the two women a thoughtful look.

"Yes, he is hotheaded but not overly so and not at the wrong times. Yes, he can be a skxawng at times but he can also be wise if needed and he was trained since his childhood to take Eytukan's role when needed. Do not underestimate his skills, devotion or cleverness in this, Trudy, just because he is acting like a child around you mostly." Her look was assessing now. Clearly, Mo'at wanted to know what Trudy would say to that.

Trudy, she heaved a heavy sigh before she looked out into the greenery for a while.

"Mo'at, I never underestimated him in this. I just question his brains sometimes and don't tell me I have no point for doing so in the late." The two women shared a wry look; no one of them questioned that words. "He is acting in my presence like a skxawng since I met him in the jungle!" Trudy jumped up and began to pace around in her ire at said leader of the Omaticaya. Her tail swished angrily through the air. "He was fighting me back then and is still abhorred to me until today and I never gave him any indication to do so, I swear! Tsu'tey is the nail on my coffin, the stone in my shoe the… the pain in my side since the first day I met him! What I ask you, Tsahik, is so detestable on me to act like he does it toward me all the time?" Her rant came of no surprise to Mo'at. She had already awaited this to happen since a while.

Tsu'tey really had made a fool out of himself in Trudy's presence since the beginning from what she did know.

"I wasn't the one who begun with this childish actions, he was. He treats me as if I have done him some great injustice but I don't know of any." Trudy gave Mo'at a hurt look. It told the old Tsahik all she needed to know. Trudy obviously felt hurt and if Mo'at was honest here, she could even understand it.

Patting the bench, she motioned Trudy over and finally took her hand when the Dreamwalker sat down.

"He… is in a complicated situation." She sighed and looked into Trudy's now golden eyes with a calm look. "His position and what it requires is getting to him all the time. I do not excuse his obvious wrong treatment of you, but both of you are rather hotheaded and have many troubles to deal with in the late." Trudy had to agree with Mo'at here and reluctantly nodded.

"He, Tsu'tey has a lot more to think about now as you, Trudy, but I know that you understand that very well too, mentally at least. Still, he is very young and he is still bound to act his age sometimes. As it is, you seem to have become his retreat from many an anger and worry in of late." At Trudy's perplexed and surprised look, Mo'at elaborated.

"Like Eytukan once, he needs someone to still meet him head on. Who is not covering in fear or better said does not do everything he says and looks at him for guidance all the time. Tsu'tey needed always one who tells him when he is acting like a moron and does not fear his repercussions of being told. He is strong-willed and hotheaded still; he also possesses a good heart and soul. Currently he is just a little overstressed from his new role and he has too to lead us through dangerous times now at the same time."

Mo'at waited until she was certain that Trudy had fully understood her.

"What he needs is someone who does not say yes to his decisions all the time, who is strong enough to meet his ire and ride it out. Someone who is as willful as he is and as headstrong as Tsu'tey is it… as it looks; he found that person in you." Trudy gave Mo'at a wide-eyed look at that news, then she groaned.

"He is using me as a kind of sandbag, isn't he? And he isn't even aware of that, is he?"

Mo'at nodded. "More like a middle thing between that and a confidante in a way. Let me ask you something, Trudy; have you let him go away with his temper when you met him?" At Trudy's firm shake of her head, Mo'at nodded to herself. "As I thought it, so in other words, you gave him a piece of your mind from the beginning on. Just like Jakesully?" The woman nodded resolutely. Mo'at laughed heartily. Now she did no longer wonder why her impulsive Olo'eyktan had chosen Trudy to venture his frustration upon out or get so irritated with in the first place. Most likely, he had seen the parallels to the infuriating mate of her daughter in Trudy and it had simply gone from there. That and the point that Trudy was rather headstrong too and had not let Tsu'tey get away with his nonsense once had lead to this disaster in the now in the end.

Oh the horror!

Mo'at laughed and giggled for quite some time before she calmed down enough again. "He sees you momentary as the only person strong enough to meet him head on; even I doubt it that he realizes that. In addition, you have proven in the late that you can take as good as you can give, trust me; that got not lost on everyone else! We are no meek people but he is rather frank and direct sometimes and that is often troubling to deal with." She gave Trudy, who grinned rather wryly at her, a reassuring smile. "Please do not judge him falsely because of that. Of course, you have not to take the treating of you from him, Olo'eyktan or not. However, please do not take him personally."

Trudy could only nod slowly at that.

She began to understand a little, and the conclusion of all together made an ugly picture in the end. Tsu'tey's problems were a many, his troubles even more and his worries had to be immense. He had to keep an entire clan safe, feed, and warm. A clan, which still had to deal with many losses and had no Kelutral anymore to top that. Add to that what Jake had told her about the upcoming games and all else, she knew of, the current leader of the Omaticaya had enough on his plate for ten people to deal with!

She was his vent of sorts, a short respite of his normal problems and many worries and somehow she began to suspect that he was slowly growing on her. Moreover, wasn't she using him the same way to give the child a name? She had, Trudy slowly got aware and the thought angered her more then Tsu'tey for once.

She looked up into Mo'at's eyes and crossed her arms to show how earnest she meant her next words.

"Alright, but prepare to fix him up if he gives me that attitude of his again! This time I have some bad surprises for Tsu'tey in store that he will not like if he does that and I will use them too. He should better keep in mind that I am not so small anymore." Mo'at just grinned at Trudy's passionate words.

She idly wondered if both stubborn children had a clue about how much they matched each other.

**End of chapter seven **

**Please leave me a nice response, your Suryallee **


	8. The wisdom of the Dogs of War

**True Soul, by Suryallee**

**Disclaimer; **

I do not, in any way or form, own any of the characters, storyline or anything else of the film Avatar! I also did not write this fanfiction to make any kind of profit from it. I merely wrote this for my amusement and for my readers.

**Warning** of silliness and fluff ^^

**Notes; Does anyone know what Awkey means translated? I tried to find out but gave up. I found a name for the Ikran Olo'eyktan, it is Payìva, or water drop in our tongue^^ Found that in an Na'vi Dictionary in an forum that one reader here suggested to me for reading, Thank you kindly for that, Complicated Cat ! **

**Your Suryallee **

_*the italics stand for native Na'vi language*_

**Chapter Eight: The Dogs of war…**

Payìva, leader of the Ikran Na'vi looked around in puzzlement.

Everywhere around the tall Na'vi female and her Ikran the Forrest went on up to the horizon. Where had her prey escaped to? Payìva hated it to hunt in the Forrest. To her all the trees made it harder to hunt. She was used to the sea and the landscapes surrounding the ocean of her home turf. Even her Ikran had troubles finding food in here! Not that there wasn't enough to hunt, not that. The blasted trees constantly thwarted her efforts to catch Yerik and other small game. Even the bigger animals had more fauna to escape into and that made hunting difficult for Payìva and her people.

How the Omaticaya could life like this was a miracle for her.

Under her and her Ikran, Payìva spotted Norm in the trees. The Dreamwalker seemingly was searching for something too in the greenery. She snorted: the male was amusing to watch. Currently, he stumbled around a bush to only fast retreat behind the same again when he spotted a big animal.

Now Payìva had to laugh.

These animals were completely harmless, always running before attacking. Seemingly, Normspellman as the Omaticaya called the cute male Dreamwalker didn't know this. A group of viperwolv's and their young caught the huntress eyes and before she had thought it through Payìva shot already an arrow at the last of the group. What caused the bigger animals to break out into a full stampede, Norm to fast jump up a bigger root of the surrounding trees and the Viperwolves to run away at full speed.

A few seconds later, the Na'vi leader did land near the still a little scared looking Norm on the root.

Payìva rode one of the biggest Ikran's in history. The green, red, and blue colored Ikran was a remarkable sight, more so from up close. Although, Norm could have lived happily without that experience! The teeth too looked rather intimidating up so close to a scared man like Norm was it right now! The female Ikran paid Norm no mind she simply purred at her rider when Payìva crooned at her mount and then watched her getting the Nantang.

For two seconds Norm simply stared then he shrugged and also got down.

He had gathered fruits, for the tribe when he had suddenly spotted the big herbivores behind the plants. Then all had suddenly become a little tricky down here and now the female Olo'eyktan of the Ikran clan turned out to be responsible for his troubles in the last minutes. Not that he did mind: she clearly was hunting and hunters were needed right at the moment. The tribe and the still recovering warriors needed meat to heal.

On his excurse, he had seen eggs that he took. Norm hoped they had not broken into pieces when he had flung his basked and spears away in his haste to get onto a root.

He just reached the items when a great growl froze him into place.

Everything from there went into slow motion.

Instinctually Norm grabbed his hunting spears that he favored over the bow, turning he could only watch the big Thanator fling Payìva through the air as if she weighed nothing at all while the big Ikran screeched over his head and jumped at the Thanator with his claws extended.

Norm saw Payìva hit the roots from before and fall down to then lay at feet of the roots completely still.

In the meanwhile, the Thanator had flung a paw at the Ikran that distracted the great beast bravely from his rider while Norm stopped to think and simply threw one of his hunting spears at the first opportunity he got at the biggest hunter in the jungle.

His strange luck was clearly on work in these seconds, because the spear hit the Thanator right into the side between the shoulder blades of his two left sided forelegs and were deeply stuck there what hindered the now incensed beast much in his movement. Norm had not even time to think or blink, he simply… reacted.

Throwing himself out of the way of the clearly mad Thanator, the man did land harshly on his left side before he rolled and jumped up again to break out into a full run over to the still out of all Payìva. In front of her Norm crouched down and threw his second spear with as much force as he could muster. His instructor's words still ringing through his mind.

To always, aim as best as he could, no matter the circumstances he was in, to always make sure to hurt a bigger hunter in a way that he could escape.

That it made no sense to fight a Thanator or other bigger hunters of the Forrest to kill it when being alone, that the others life has had to always, absolutely always had to come first! That the loss of a fellow hunter wasn't worth the risks and so on. Tsu'tey's voice was leading Norm in his handling of the situation at hand. Even not being here in person.

The second spear hit death centre into one of the breathing holes on the underside of the Thanator and so stopped the beast effectively from getting to them both for a little while.

Norm, he did not even watch the beast anymore, while keeping his ears on the howling beast, he fast scooped up Payìva's body and run into the foliage. He was currently driven from his primal needs to find a spot to hide both of them, safe and sound away until the beast gave up search. Behind him, the Thanator had gotten the second spear out and was after the two in a flash.

Payìva's Ikran used the situation at hand to attack the beast from above but could not stop it from following the two hunters.

Norm finally found a bunch of roots, thick enough to keep them both safe and deep enough to hide them from the claws of the big hunter after their tails. With a war cry, he drove head forward into the roots.

This bold move rescued Payìva's and his lives.

The wave of air hit him and made it perfectly clear to Norm that he had just barely escaped the swipe of one of the beast's dangerous claws by a hair's wide. Giving the roaring beast a short glance, he hurried to get deeper into the tangle of thick roots. His tail hurt slightly and a short look told Norm that the beast had ribbed out some of his hairs at the end with the last attack. It was slightly bleeding but otherwise intact.

Gulping air frantically into his lungs, Norm felt like fainting but instead he moved them deeper into the roots.

Outside the big beast tried to break the roots to get to his enemies, while Payìva's Ikran still interrupted the most of his efforts. Until now, the Ikran sported a lot cuts in his wings. Seeing this, Norm screamed in Na'vi at the banshee to fly and get help. After a few more tries, the brave Ikran finally gave an angry screech and did as told.

Payìva seemed not overly hurt to Norm, who still had his hands full to avoid the Thanator's tries to get to them or the two out of the roots again. Her head sported a big bump but otherwise she slowly looked like she was coming to. The beast still gave not up. Norm had incensed the great hunter immensely, with hurting him badly with his last spear. Between pain and anger, the Thanator was unstoppable set on killing them both now.

Norm realized that too and looked at the two reminding spears in his hands.

If he managed it to distract the Thanator for a moment… His mind flew a mile a minute in his scheming how to possibly hurt the beast so much that it would let it go and run into his hiding spot to heal. Closing his eyes he remembered what Jake and Trudy had told him once before about soldiers in war times on earth.

When in a fight, the only thing that counts is your survival. If you have to die, than take at least your enemy with you… to never give up.

Not thinking he threw the first of his spears right at the belly of the Thanator. Then he threw the second spear right after the first at his real target with the favorite war cry of Trudy and with all he had. The next events happened again in a kind of slow motion for Norm. The first spear had the Thanator crouch instinctually down to avoid another episode as before, while the beast roared at the man.

That was when the second spear hit the target Norm had originally had in mind to aim at, right into the centre. The short hunting spear nearly vanished halfway inside the left eye of the Thanator from the force Norm had used to throw it. Right under the eyes of the waking up Payìva who stunned watched the entire debacle from behind Norm, crouching protectively in front of her.

With an earsplitting, howl the beast began to roll around itself on the floor. Screeching and yelping the beast tried to get the offending spear out of his eye with no success.

Norm still did not think, he simply saw red in the moment. Jumping over to his first spear, Norm took it and with one fluid move, he used the momentum of his jump to turn in the midair to drive the spear deeply with another yell of "Geronimo!" into the air hole on the left side of the distracted Thanator.

The spear vanished inside right up to the hilt.

One of the paws threw him away from the dying giant in a last attempt to get rid of Norm. The paw and claws caught Norm at his right thigh and ribbed deep lines into the skin there, right down to the bones. The force of the last swipe at Norm threw the man right over the entire clearing. He landed in a heap on a patch of moss on the opposite side of Payìva and was out cold before he hit the ground.

The Olo'eyktan of the Ikran clan crawled as swiftly as she could around the still dying beast and over to Norm.

Cradling Norm's head in her lap Payìva checked on the comatose male before her wide eyes took in the last moves of the dying beast in front of both of them. Blood was everywhere. It spurted in rivers out of the chest and head wound until the fountain grew less intense until it did die out into a trickle with the last sporadic twitches of the Thanator.

The greatest of Eywa's hunters beside her children the Na'vi, the biggest of her dangerous beasts next to the Toruk in the sky, the Thanator: was no more.

It was like this, the dead beast on one side of the clearing and Payìva with Norm in her lap staring wide-eyed at the dead Thanator that Tsu'tey, Jake, Neytiri and Awkey and their hunters found them a short while later. Awkey crouched carefully down next to the shell-shocked Ikran leader, well knowing what a stun an enraged Thanator could enforce in his hunted victim.

Looking up with big eyes Payìva addressed Awkey.

"_He… he protected me… he protected and killed the Thanator for me, Awkey!"_ She pointed at the still groggy and half-unconscious Norm in her lap with a helpless flutter of hands. "_The beast was after ME! Not him. It wanted my kill and me and not him… it, hit me unconscious. He must have distracted it with my Ikran together and wounded it to get away."_ She looked down at Norm with clear awe in her eyes, and she wasn't the only one in the clearing that did that currently.

Tsu'tey whistled.

From what he could tell, he had underestimated the male Dreamwalker a Big deal! The man clearly had taken his teachings with the spears to heart. Norm must have put up a hellish fight with the beast. Looking at the wreckage of the trail of the beast, he could easily imagine the mad chase through the foliage and how it had ended. The signs spoke volumes. Looking down at Norm Tsu'tey realized slowly that Norm maybe was a dork as his people called it but he was a damned brave dork!

One, with clear skills with his spears instead of the usual bow and arrows that Tsu'tey's clan normally favored to use.

Kneeling he and Awkey began to patch both injured hunters up meanwhile the rest cut down the Thanator into pieces, which could be transported easier on the Ikran's. The wounds itself on Norm and Payìva weren't so bad; it was more their shocks that was to consider here. And no one blamed Payìva or Norm for being in a stun after such an ordeal.

It was nearly impossible to take down a Thanator in full fight mode all by yourself; Tsu'tey knew this all too well. Having hunted one down once with Eytukan and other hunters in the past… and yet, Norm had managed the not doable with only one quartet of hunting spears.

Tsu'tey decided that it was high time for the man to get his own Ikran. He deserved one!

Trudy was the first person that Norm saw when coming out of the link.

She and Max a second later frantically checked on him. His fight had been reported a moment before from Jake. The ex-marine had sounded worried and fearful. Max immediately cut the link from Norm to his Avatar in his shock. The avatar would be brought in a few minutes. Until then, Max made every check on Norm that he could to ensure that Norm was ok. After that, he did run off to the avatar station to check on the avatar.

Sitting down, Trudy gave her friend a lopsided smile that was faintly echoed from Norm on the bedding.

"You know, you were extremely lucky, yes?"

Norm nodded. That much was clear as the day. She nodded and simply sat with Norm for a long while in shared silence.

Outside the station, Payìva watched the humans swarm around the avatar. Mentally she knew Norm was safe inside of this strange building. Inside his human body. Still, she was worried about the male Dreamwalker who had rescued her live this day. The teeth of the Thanator were his to wear with pride. Not only had Norm rescued her live with throwing his in the line, he too had killed the beast.

No one in the clans would keep the honor from him to wear them now.

She agreed with Tsu'tey here: it was about time that the Dreamwalker got his own Ikran. He had proven that he was a hunter and warrior in his own way. Her golden eyes watched max and the other Tocktor's move the still body of Norm inside the link station and over to the medical to work on his wounds.

One of them, a female in human body came slowly up to Payìva and offered to clean the wounds for her with a shy smile.

The huntress huffed and let her do her work. Payìva had seen how effective their medicine was. The stuff the woman used to call disinfect hurt as a bitch but Payìva refused to show the pain… much. Through the windows on her left, Payìva saw the human form of Trudy care for a male. She identified him quickly as Norm in human form and a sigh of relive left her lips. Up until now, she had feared that Norm had been wounded when the link was suddenly cut and his avatar had fallen still.

Jake had cursed at Max into the micro in his new shock, seeing this.

The picture of Trudy and Norm together gave her a pained feeling. She fast crushed it down, well knowing that the two were friends now and not more anymore. Jake had told that to Neytiri and Payìva had avidly listened into that conversation. As far as she knew, Norm was unbound and that suited Payìva fine. She found the Dreamwalker to cute for words before and now she began to admire him too.

He clearly was no hunter by choice.

Nevertheless, if needed, this male could turn into a dangerous warrior and protector. One that no one should underestimate from what she had seen today. Norm clearly loved knowledge what suited Payìva well: her clan had lost their singer in training in the war. Looking back shortly at Tsu'tey she saw that he watched her with a crocked head, a thoughtful look in his eyes. The Olo'eyktan of the Omaticaya knew most likely, what she was thinking.

Coming over to her, Tsu'tey watched the two Dreamwalker inside the kink station for a moment in silence.

"_I will not give him up to you without a fight, Payìva."_ She nodded. Payìva had suspected as much. Folding her arms in front of her, she too stood and watched the pair inside of the room. "_And I will not let go on the chance to get him without one, Tsu'tey." _This time he nodded. Both fell silent, having made their moves and together they resumed to watch the two humans inside.

Awkey shook his head at the two Olo'eyktan.

He was a bit older as the two younger leaders and had seen more in his live. Awkey was still a big deal younger as Eytukan had been but he was old enough to be counted under the older ones under the clan leaders. He was in the prime of his life, so to speak. Until now, his main focus had been his clan and their welfare.

Now he found himself back in a unique situation.

Tsu'tey had something that he wanted. Badly wanted and the hotheaded Olo'eyktan of the Omaticaya would not give it up without a fight. Awkey would have to trick the other Olo'eyktan to get what he wanted what suited him fine too. That much was sure. He could understand Tsu'tey fully, Awkey would do right the same in Tsu'tey's situation, having lost near the half of his clan and needing to replace the badly needed hunters and gatherers. Walking a little away from the two other leaders, Awkey walked over to the windows that showed the medical wing of the buildings.

Inside the rooms, he watched Max stitch one of the wounds of the avatar of Norm together.

They would scar, he was sure and leave a fine mark on the male Dreamwalker. Norm would most likely be one of the most wanted trophies in the upcoming games. This all just added to his potential worth as a future singer. Awkey grinned. Payìva would fight like a Palulukan to get him for her clan and more so, for herself. If she won, Awkey was sure, the leader of the Ikran tribe would not let him go again.

More likely Norm would end up mated to her in under a year… not that Awkey was bothered by that, but Tsu'tey would, he was in no doubt.

Chuckling softly he wandered off and around the compound until he reached the areal were the hangar's of the battle machines of the RDA had once been situated. He had snooped around here before, now he searched not for knowledge but for something else here.

"Olo'eyktan! I see you, Awkey of the Pa'li clan." Christine bowed slightly in her human form, one hand over her heart. He did the same. "And I see you, Chrios'dane, how were your day, teacher of the children? Ours was a little too exciting for my taste." He grinned at the now so tiny looking female Dreamwalker who grinned back clearly amused. "And I should believe that?" Christine shook her head with laughter when the giant gave her a toothy grin as response.

Since reopening the school of Grace Augustine, Christine had him often as a guest there.

As well as a lot of the other Na'vi leaders and warriors. All were curios of what she did there together with Arnd all the time. Awkey had come there lots more often than the others and asked fascinated questions all the time. His dry sense of humor made her laugh often. Once he had asked her why Arnd called her Chriosdane instead of Christine. Laughing she had explained to him that her grandmother had always called her that on earth and that Arnd and she had grown up together.

From what she knew, it was Gaelic or Celtic origin in language of her people on earth and meant mostly the same as her name and he often called her so too thus.

Awkey, being the one he was and likening the sound of it had simply adopted the new name of her and called her the same ever since or the shortened version, Chrios. Turning the young woman went back to pack items for tomorrows school day hours. He watched her with a smile do so. Her human form was much different from her Na'vi body. Not as much as that she was not recognizable, but still much different enough and that not only in high.

Mostly he missed the queue.

He still could not understand how someone, anyone could live without the connection to Eywa. Even the animals here had one. Humans, being from another planet had none. For Awkey it was too mystifying a difference to get it into his skull. Shaking it off, he sat down on a box and watched Christine simply until she was finished.

He knew she would go into the link station afterwards and then put the bags and boxes into one of the machines to bring it later via pilot to the school. Awkey counted on that. He planned to accompany her back there in order to talk more with her. 'After all', he thought grinning a little feral while watching her go over to the building doors, 'what Tsu'tey did not know, could not alert him'.

Rising and taking with him the bags and cargo, he whistled a merry tune while wandering over to the avatar house.

As long as Tsu'tey was busy with Payìva, Awkey was safe from to early detection what aided his plans immensely. Another grin shortly played over his features: Awkey could be patient if needed. Immeasurably so, if he set his will to it, like he currently did it. He had not become Olo'eyktan of his clan for nothing. Awkey wasn't considered as the most handsome of his kind; actually, he was rather harsh to look at in the eyes of his people.

Not in the meaning of looking ugly but in the sense of having hard angles and sharp features.

He even accentuated that looks with a small needle that was trust through the flesh of his nose. He made an intimidating picture and Awkey knew this. Taller when the most, even Tsu'tey who was already very tall, he was broader in his shoulders and more muscular as the most. Scars run all over his body that spoke of many won fights and gifted with the practice of those many fights, he was feared from his opponents in battle for a very good reason.

To that brute strength, one had to count the shrewd and fast working mind of him all the time.

Awkey was renowned for his intellect under the leaders and Tsu'tey had a hard time in the last games to overcome him in the fight for the Ceremonial Bow he wore currently with rightful pride. Awkey had not too grudgingly given the young leader the respect that Tsu'tey deserved in the end. He had bested him in a fair duel and that with a clever move that Awkey admired until today.

Spitting out he shortly thought of the other leader that had challenged Tsu'tey earlier.

That one always left him with a bad taste in the mouth when Awkey thought of the honor-less dog. What a fool that one had been. All muscle without a brain to use them correctly. Shaking it off he waited for the female Dreamwalker to awake and get ready. Sure, Awkey was a good catch, so to speak, not only for his status but also for his prowess in hunt and battle, but also he had no illusions about his looks.

All the more, he enjoyed the company of Christine who was considered to be more than gorgeous looking under the Na'vi.

Besides, the female had a character to match the looks. He could tell and had fast set his eyes on her as many of the others too. Said rivals had fast recoiled when getting aware that he had an interest in Christine. The most at least had shrunk back; some still dared to try their luck, under them was one of the best hunters of the Omaticaya, Sirjai. Plus, that hunter was persistent! Sirjai could actually put up enough fight to be a competition to Awkey, bodily and in the brains department.

'But not right now', he thought beaming charmingly up at the friendly female who greeted his form outside with a soft smile that could melt an iceberg. 'Currently he was alone with her here', Awkey laughed inwardly wickedly to himself. Seeing him swinging back and forth on the balls of his feet like a little boy, with a grin to match, Christine could not help it, she had to smile seeing Awkey like this.

The giant leader was charming in his own way when he wanted it. That she had found out fast, that and that he seemingly had a crush on her. However, she did not mind him Christine actually liked Awkey. He was witty, had a sharp sense of good-natured humor and was more a down to earth type as the most other males she had met in her life. Most of all she liked how careful he was with the children. His patience with them and his smart way to explain them things was stunning to watch. The most had not that much tolerance and Christine did know that very well.

Idly she wondered about it of how many had underestimated him in the past.

His intellect was fast and his knowledge and the skill to use the same was almost terrifying to watch when he deigned to use it on a victim. Sirjai one of the Omaticaya, had more often than not come out of a banter bout between them two as the sore loser. And he wasn't the most stupid of persons either. Rather the opposite was a fact.

Just, younger, she had realized and less experienced with this sort of battles as Awkey.

Watching Awkey walk proudly over to his Ikran, Christine silently admired the strong body of the Olo'eyktan before she closed her seatbelt. With such a man, pardon male one would never have to worry for having him do something rash or stupid. He would take a good care of what he considered his and surprisingly the domineering side of Awkey that shone through wasn't scaring her as much as it should have.

He had his good sides as he had his bad ones too, just like everyone else in the universe.

In the meanwhile, Trudy had left Norm after bringing him to his room.

Laying down into the capsule and closing the lid of the link bed, she wondered casually of how fast she had gotten used to this. Shaking it off, she felt her mind drift. In the house, her avatar opened her eyes. Groaning she found out that she still wasn't used to waking in this fashion. At least one thing was still strange.

Sam was today playing ferry to Christine and Arnd.

She watched the Samson start and soon after Awkey's Ikran flew up behind it. Grinning Trudy rubbed her eyes. She had seen the interest the leader of the Pa'li clan held in Christine and had a good laugh about it with Arnd who watched the strange courting of them from out of a safe distance all the time at the school, to tell Trudy the news at the evening meal.

Christine, when asked about Awkey, just smiled one of her soft smiles and went on her merry way. What had Trudy more than once double over in laughter.

She had seen Tsu'tey outside and decided to ask him some uncomfortable questions about the games. Not time as the present, Trudy thought and went on her way. On the way over to were the hunters still sat together and talked, many a stare followed her on her way. Not for the first time she noted that, Trudy ignored them all as usual since a few days. Outwardly nothing showed, inward was another matter that Trudy did not tell anyone about. Whistling she noted that Tsu'tey had wandered off to the hangar's to watch the Samson fly away with Awkey in tow. She grinned at his scowl.

Stopping next to him, Trudy too looked at the vanishing machine and rider.

"Some things happen, no matter what others want or not." She told him cryptically after a moment. Tsu'tey nodded cut short. He understood perfectly what Trudy was meaning with that comment. "_Maybe, but that doesn't mean that the others have to accept that without to put up a fight."_ He told her in the same way. She just grinned at him. "_That does not change a thing and you know it, Tsu'tey"_ Sitting she ignored his glare at her. "_You can fight Awkey, and given you have even a good chance to best him but in the end it means nothing, only wasted air and effort, since Christine is the one who has the last word in this. Not all can be won with brute force and you know that too, don't you?"_

Growling at her, he balled his fists. "_Oh? And what gave you that wisdom?" _ Trudy met his glare with a calm look. "_Your fight about your bow and the fool who tried to do exactly that…" _ Tsu'tey visible deflated at her words. He knew Trudy was right with that observation as much as it irked him, most likely it would end exactly that way.

Cussing he kicked an empty box over the expanse of the hangar both were in.

Seeing his mood, Trudy wisely closed the door behind her to hide his small temper tantrum from the others outside. If he noted it wasn't clear, but Tsu'tey kept on with kicking the box over the place until he seemingly calmed down enough. Suddenly he turned with a huff and walked over to Trudy who still sat on her box to sit down next to her avatar.

"_Tsu'tey?_ He gave her a grunt to show that he had heard her; all the while, he stared at a point between his feet. _Why exactly do we fight all the time?"_ That had him sputter for a moment. Looking up he gave Trudy's avatar a longer look before he went his eyes back to the ground beneath his feet.

"_I do not know that either, to be honest." _He told her almost too silent to be heard. Sighting he shrugged before he went on. "_Maybe we both are to strong-willed?" _His not expected insight was now stunning Trudy into silence. "_That and that we both are hotheads, to note Mo'at's observations that she has told me a few days ago." _She told Tsu'tey after a moment. Trudy and Tsu'tey chuckled both at that. "_Could have it right, I suppose… for all I know you and I have quite a temper." _ He told her with a lopsided grin that Trudy could not help to echo.

"_Well don't blame that only on me, oh Olo'eyktan! Who of us has begun with this childish behavior?" _Trudy gave him a stern look whilst crossing her arms over her ample breasts. That was one thing that her avatar had too much build out for her taste, too big breasts. The Na'vi females had normally not the half of her bosom, what irritated her immensely. Actually, it wasn't much more as she had in her human form, still a great deal more as the Na'vi had normally.

It had an odd effect on the males of both species around her. Tsu'tey had even stared at them unabashedly when he saw her walk around for the first time by accident. The resounding slap at his rather impolitely voiced observation that she would have no trouble to feed an army of children with that equipment later, had rung loudly through the entire compound and made all other humans and Na'vi wisely avoid the fuming Trudy for the rest of the day. Tsu'tey had a perfectly outlined handprint of her on his right side of the face for days, so much force had Trudy put into the slap. She had not spoken to him for almost the rest of the entire week. In fact, she had gotten her new bow every time she saw him and even nearly strike him with one of her arrows once or twice.

Until Mo'at found out and brought him to apologize for his rude comment. What he only did under protest.

Since then and the resulting shouting match between Trudy and Tsu'tey, the two had a strange peace agreement between them. He tried to watch his mouth and she tried not to kill him when he lost it again. Over the last days, that had ended up in some strange situations that seemed to happen between them all the time when no one was looking.

For example, the box kicking of Tsu'tey just a moment earlier.

Every time the Olo'eyktan got mad at someone or something Trudy found herself back having to calm him down in one of the Hangar's of the compound. At Trudy's question of, why he did not go to Mo'at, Tsu'tey had shrugged and countered that she had enough already on her plate. Besides, here was no one Trudy suspected, that could watch him working off his anger and frustration.

Well, no one besides her, and Trudy wasn't a title-tattle.

No matter how infuriating Tsu'tey could be. Right now, he gave her one of his stares that Trudy stubbornly refused to let it make her cover in fear. With a final roll of his eyes, the Na'vi looked away first. She had him there Tsu'tey knew that. It didn't mean that he had to like it, far from that.

Honestly told, Tsu'tey began to think that Trudy was much like his Tsahik in her way to stare him down and make him see reason.

Her advice was sound and often helping to calm the situations before they got out of hand. Looking at Trudy once more, he found that she would have made a fine Tsahik if she had grown up here and not on earth. "_How does it come that you sound like a Tsahik so often?" _He demanded to know.

Trudy's wide eyes and arched brows told him that he had surprised her.

She took a while with her answer, but for once Tsu'tey was not impatient to get one. His outburst had surprised him too. Finally sighting and uncrossing her arms to rest her hands on her knees she looked up at the ceiling. "_I… think that has to do with my Grandfather." _She told him suddenly out of the blue, in a thoughtful voice. "_Have you ever heard the term Shaman or medicine-man before?"_ At his headshake, she nodded and looked back up at the ceiling. "_On earth, the spiritual leaders and healers of my people, the Native Americans where called thus. The white men, the intruders gave them the name Medicine-men. Essentially, they were a mix of a healer and a shaman or what you would call, a Tsahik, in a way to speak. Much like Mo'at, here, they gave guidance to those who needed it, spoke with our ancestors and the good and the evil spirits of their world. _

_But it wasn't the only thing they did. They had also to take care of the injured or sick. Had to lead the celebrations and such. Just like Mo'at does it for your clan. They were the link to the nature, to mother earth for us." _

She gave the avidly listening Tsu'tey a wry smile that bordered on sad. One of those that make the onlooker wants to cry.

"_My Grandfather was one of the last one left in the world that had been fully taught. He mostly need not even to look at someone to know what ailed him or her. How he did it, I have no clue, he just did. Many came to him into the reservation for help. He was renowned for his perception and knowledge of the old ways. _

_Also, he was already very, very old when I was born. _

_My father had not been his only child, rather his youngest. The other two had died before I was even born, so old was he, Tsu'tey. Nearly seventy-six when he had to take on me after my parents dead and I was just seven at that time! Still, he took me in, even searched after me in the desert when I was missing and taught me a lot. His wife was not much younger but my Grandmother never tired in helping me cope… how they did it, I never found out." _

Here a finger gently wishing the tear away that was running down her face interrupted Trudy for a startled moment. She had not realized that she had begun to cry. Tsu'tey's eyes held a rare tender look. One that made Trudy wishes he would look like that more often. Heaving a sigh, she rubbed her face and went on.

"_He… he was endlessly patient with me. Never raising his voice and neither did she. Always he found a way to explain the un-explainable to me in simple words. Over the few years I had with them, they gave me a stable home, a loving home and taught me much of the old ways. I learned to work leathers like my grandmother did and her forbearers had done in the fare past as well as the old chants of my Grandfather. He taught me all his knowledge in herbs and medicine lore and she, how to survive in the wilds. _

_Maybe, just maybe that is why I sound to you like one of your Tsahik. _

_I honestly didn't know that I did. Jake already told me that I often have strange insights, as he called it. I rather think it is more that I learned to read people better as usually one does. From my Grandfather. He often told me to simply listen to my heart and the world around me if I do not know how to react or what to do, that the instinct of us knows it far better as our rational mind what we should do. _

_I guess, he succeeded more in teaching me this all as he thought!" _She gave a short laugh, a bitter one that made Tsu'tey give her an inquisitive look.

"_What do you mean?" _

Trudy smiled wistfully whilst staring at the ground.

"_Before he died, he told me shortly that he known for a long time that he was the last of his line of shamans. That on earth, never one would follow him in his footsteps, because our world is dead to her children now." _

She looked at Tsu'tey with sad but clear eyes.

"_Back then, I did not want to believe him. He even went so far to send me to the Marines to become a fighter. For a long time I was rather cross with him for that but I accepted his decision… now I wonder sometimes, Tsu'tey." _

He gave her a mystified look. "_What do you mean now with that statement, Trudy?" _

_What I mean is that I understand him now much better, Tsu'tey! Call me stupid, mad or insane if you want, but I honestly believe that he must have known it somehow that I would end up one day here on Pandora!" _

**End of chapter. **

**Hope you liked this one^^ it is actually a part of one bigger one that I had to split in two. **

**Your Suryallee ^_^**


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